


10 Things I Hate About Kuroo Tetsurou

by erinyanko



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Fusion, I am slightly surprised and embarrassed as to how much I have memorized 10 Things I Hate About You, M/M, Minor Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Minor Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-17
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-05-27 09:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6279673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erinyanko/pseuds/erinyanko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite not being blood-related, Hinata Shouyou and Tsukishima Kei had to follow one rule while living under the Karasuno share house under the supervision of captain, Daichi Sawamura and third-year setter, Koushi Sugawara.<br/>No dating until they graduated.<br/>New student, Kenma Kozume finds himself smitten with Hinata and in order to get around Daichi's and Suga's new revised rule, that Hinata can only date when Tsukishima does, attempts to get "bad boy" Tetsurou Kuroo to date the tempestuous Tsukishima with the help of Kotarou Bokuto.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Welcome to Balle High School, your typical upper-middle class school settled in the booming city in Seattle, Washington. The pristine high school stood surrounded by evergreen lush redwood forests was blossoming with small packs of students as they mingled and conversed among each other over their summer vacation activities.

Four cookie-cutter jock boys bounce their heads in unison to the beat of a currently popular pop music blasting from the radio of their cookie-cutter upper-middle class car.

Tsukishima Kei, very tall despite being a first year high school student; short blond hair, thin eyebrows paired with golden brown eyes and framed with simple black square framed glasses. Despite the permanent frown on his face, Tsukishima was rather pretty - but trying hard not to be (and utterly failing) - pulls his standard middle-class car next to theirs. Heavy rock blasts from his radio clashing against the up-beat pop. Tsukishima scowls with indignation as the four jocks give a quick scan of his appearance and sneer at his choice of music.

Tsukishima cocks an eyebrow and smirks as he raises the volume of his music before driving off as the traffic signal turns green. He parks in his parking space and quickly grabs his things. As he heads to the main entrance, he approaches another cookie-cutter, this time a cute girl posting a flyer for the upcoming prom on the wall and tears it down as he passes.

"Hey!" The poster girl calls out only to be ignored by an indifferent Tsukishima.

Enter Kozume Kenma, a rather shy looking boy. Judging by the coloring of his hair, it had been many months (maybe even years) since his last bleached it. Though he was currently sitting a chair, he was of average height and had a small build. He was rather plain looking and didn't have any outstanding features except for his eyes, which appeared almost cat-like.

He sat facing Mr. Takeda, the current guidance counselor. His short height paired with a messy black hair and brown eyes framed by simple black glasses made look younger than he actually was. If Kenma passed by him in public, he would've mistaken Mr. Takeda for another student.

He sat quietly as Mr. Takeda typed away on his laptop, clearly in the middle of something very important. Unknown to the quiet and reserved transfer student, the guidance counselor was busy composing some racy lines for his current romance novel in-progress. As he finished the last sentence, he glances over to Kenma's transcript and walked over to sit on the edge of his desk.

"So Kozume Kenma, I see we've been to nine schools in the past ten years. Army child?"

"Uh, no. My dad's a-"

"Oh, that's enough. Don't need to hear your whole story. I'm sure you won't find Balle High School any different than your old schools."

Kenma jolted in his seat as a large wad wet toilet paper hit and stuck against a window. He could hear a faint cheer and looked at guidance counselor with worry over the blatant prank.

"Same little asswipe shit-for-brains everywhere." Mr. Takeda smiled as he pointed to the giant mess on his window that slowly sank south thanks to gravity.

"Um...excuse me. Did you just..." Kenma glanced around his chair briefly. "Am I in the right office?"

Mr. Takeda walked up to Kenma and handed him his class schedule.

"Not anymore you're not. I've got deviants to see and a gay novel to finish. Now scoot."

Kenma rises from his seat, picking up his backpack, and makes his way to the door. As he opens the door he stopped shortly as a sly, narrowed cat-like eyed, black haired, and fairly tall student blocked the doorway. His hair spiked upwards while a long lock hung on the right side of his face, partially covering his right eye. He had a slender muscular frame and he cocked a sly smirk as he passed Kenma and entered the room.

"Kuroo Tetsurou," Mr. Takeda says as he makes his way back behind his desk and sits; "I see we're making our visits a daily ritual."

Mr. Takeda gives Kuroo a disapproving, almost like a silent parental scolding, glance. Kuroo answers with a charming smile that only added to his cat-like appearance.

"Only so we have these moments together." Kuroo glanced back as the door briefly. "Should I lock the door and get the lights?"

"Oh ha ha cat boy." Mr. Takeda glances through Kuroo's file, "Says in your file that you exposed yourself in the cafeteria?"

"I was joking with the lunch lady." Kuroo shrugged his shoulders as if it was a daily occurrence. "It was a bratwurst."

Mr. Takeda glances down at Kuroo's groin suspiciously. "A bratwurst? Aren't we the optimist?"

Kuroo recoiled back slightly as Mr. Takeda was clearly misinterpreting something.

"Next time, keep it in your pants, okay." Mr. Takeda eyes him from above the frame of his glasses and smiles.

After Kuroo leaves, Takeda goes back to his in-progress novel, replacing the work "member" with "bratwurst" to the sentence he was working on.

Kenma weaves his way through the bustling crowd of the halls. He keeps his head low and eyes at every passing by student with suspicion. He flinched as a large strong hand clasped his shoulder and turned him around.

The first thing Kenma noticed was a pair of round, golden eyes. Next was white spiky hair with black streaks that oddly reminded Kenma of an owl. He was fairly tall (at least to Kenma’s standards) and it was obvious that he was athletic given his medium muscular build.

"HEY, HEY, HEEEEEEEEYYYYY! I'm Kotarou Bokuto. I'm supposed to show you around."

"Oh…hi." Kenma said shyly.

Bokuto spun Kenma around and wrapped a muscular arm around his small frame as he guided him through the hallway. He began pointing to Kenma various groups of students. Showing him everything he needs to know about the student hierarchy.

"Over there, you've got your basic beautiful popular people. Now, unless they talk to you first, don't bother."

"Is that your rule or theirs?" Kenma asks as he takes a suspicious glance at the pointed group of well-groomed students.

"Just watch," Bokuto scouts a passing by popular student and holds his free hand to wave; "hey there!"

"Bite me!" The boy snaps without giving Bokuto so much of a side-glance.

Bokuto looks down at Kenma and gives a shrug. He continues guiding Kenma through the hallway and out into the main quad area. He points to a group of students conversing as they took generous sips from their coffee cups.

"Those are coffee kids. Very edgy, I suggest you don't make any sudden movements around them. I bumped into one when I went to receive a volleyball pass and have been forever marked as coffee enemy number one."

Bokuto chuckled before they stepped down a couple of steps and passed a table full of students all adorning dreadlocks and clad in Jamaican-esque attire.

"Those are the delusional Rastafarians. Big Bob Marley fans; think they're black; semi-political, but mostly they just smoke a bunch of weed."

"There you have your urban cowboys, though the closest thing to a cow they've ever come to was a plastic cow display in front of a Kobe beef restaurant. And over there, you have your future CEOs and masterminds. All accepted into Ivy League schools."

Bokuto pointed off into the distance where a group of tall, well-build students stood in a circle and conversed while passing a volleyball to each other.

"Those are my peeps. One of four volleyball teams at this school; though the one I'm in is the best. By the way, you're standing next to the most important person on the team."

Bokuto puffed out his chest with pride and he gave his signature smirk to the small timid cat-like boy.

"Jersey number 4; wing spiker and ace of the team."

Kenma's attention was cut short when out of his peripheral vision he spotted a tuff of bright sunset orange hair. His large cat-like eyes locked on and followed the orange-haired small boy walk in almost a movie slow motion.

"What group is he in?" Kenma asked as the boy who appeared to be the personification of the sun itself walked in his direction.

"The 'don't even think about it' group. That's Hinata Shouyou. First year. He's on the other volleyball team: lives with the rest of the players in a share house."

"I burn; I pine; I perish." Kenma exclaims as his head follows Hinata's movements.

"Of course you do." Bokuto says as he shakes his head.

Hinata passes them accompanied with his good friend, Kageyama Tobio. The impressively sharp glare and intimidating aura seemed to almost magnify in intensity when paired with Hinata’s cheerful energetic aura. They looked almost like opposites.

"I think there's a difference between 'like' and 'love'. Because I like pork buns but I love _tamago kake gohan_."

"But I love pork buns."

"...Well that's because you haven't tried my mom's _tamago kake gohan_."

"Ohhh."

Kenma continued to follow Hinata as he and Kageyama passed them before Bokuto spun him around again guiding him in the opposite direction.

"Listen to my advice, Kenma. Forget Hinata. Incredibly uptight team family and it widely known that the captain of the team doesn't allow dating for first years."

Kenma took a quick glance down the direction Hinata and Kageyama were walking and nodded slightly.

 

* * *

 

Mr. Ukai, a surprisingly educated man despite his unprofessional appearance, was a no-nonsense man in his twenties and walked about the room full of bored third years that seem to be either staring off into space or doodling.

“Now then, what did everyone think about ‘The Sun Also Rises’?”

A female student, one of the few that was actually paying attention, raised her hand briefly before offering her praise.

“I love it. It was so romantic.” She sighed.

Tsukishima, the only first year in a third year literature class, turns and cocks an eyebrow with a clearly disgusted expression.

“Romantic? Ernest Hemingway, really?”

And so started Tsukishima’s daily war against the large population of high school student ignorance.

“He was an abusive raging alcoholic misogynist who squandered half of his life trying to one-up Fitzgerald and Faulkner by adding mediocre flares to his elementary writing style.”

A good handful of students roll their eyes. Oikawa Tooru, dark chocolate brown haired third year smirks before adding his two-cents. Many students at Balle High (along with the neighboring schools as well) found him very attractive – to the point where several girls (some not even students at the school) would follow him around just to either talk to him or give him presents.

“Says the bitter thirsty first year who has no friends.”

Tsukishima pops his jaw before turning to face his new opponent.

“I guess in this society being a pompous narcissistic asshole makes you worthy of our time.” He turns back in his seat to face Mr.Ukai. “What about Charlotte Bronte or Simone de Beauvoir or at least Jane Austen?”

The door slams open suddenly as Kuroo steps into the classroom, clearly late.

“What’d I miss?”

Tsukishima briefly scans Kuroo with disgust before rolling his eyes and turning back facing forward in his seat.

“Just the oppressive patriarchal values that dictate our mediocre education.”

Kuroo smiles before nodding and turns immediately to leave.

“Hey, hey!” Mr. Ukai shouts after Kuroo but is met only with the closing door. He clicks his tongue in annoyance. Damn third years.

“Mr. Ukai,” Oikawa raises his hand, “is there any chance we can get Tsukki to take his aspirin before coming to class?”

Tsukishima crosses his arms as he hears a few snickers.

“You know, some day you’re gonna get bitch-slapped and I’m not gonna do a thing about it. And Tsukishima, I want to thank you for your point of view,” Tsukishima smirks to himself; “I can’t imagine how difficult it must’ve been for you to overcome all those years of upper-middle class suburban oppression. Must be tough.”

Tsukishima’s smirk deflated to a frown.

“But the next time you storm into the PTA crusading for better lunch options, or whatever it is you volleyball playing boys complain about, ask them why they can’t buy a book written by a person of color!”

“That’s right, mon!” Two white Rastafarian kids raise their fists as they take up Mr. Ukai’s comment of inequality.

“Don’t get me started on you two.”

“Anything else?” Tsukishima asks as the two white Rastafarians grumble apologetically and quickly shut up in their seats.

“Yea, go the office. You’re pissing me off.”

“What? Bu-”

“Later!”

Tsukishima fumes before getting up from his seat and hits Oikawa in the face with his bookbag as he leaves.

“Thanks, Mr. Ukai.”

“Shut up, Oikawa.”


	2. Chapter 2

Takeda was busy typing away on his laptop. His eyes closed as he pictured the scene in his head.

“Undulating with desire,…Ittetsu removes his red…” Takeda pauses with slight disapproval and deletes a couple words replacing them with new adjectives; “removes his crimson cape…at the sight of Kenshin’s excitable, stiff…” Takeda pauses again this time with frustration as he was drawing blanks on appropriate synonyms.

“Kiyoko,” Takeda calls out and Kiyoko Shimizu, a student assistant pops her head in the door way; “what’s another word for ‘engorged’?”

“I’ll look it up.” Kiyoko responds before returning to daily activities.

“…swollen…turgid…hardened…” Takeda continues composing unaware that Tsukishima enters the office.

“Tumescent?”

“Perfect!” Takeda quickly writes the word down on a post-it note before turning his attention back to Tsukishima. “I heard you were terrorizing Mr. Ukai’s class again.”

“Expressing my opinion is not a terrorist act.” Tsukishima replies as he sets his bookbag down and sits in the open chair.

“Uh-huh, like the way you expressed your opinion to Keisuke Matsuda for bullying Tadashi Yamaguchi? By the way, his testicle retrieval operation went very well, in case you were wondering.”

“I still maintain that he kicked himself in the balls.”

“The point is Tsukki,” Takeda stops as he makes the sudden connection between Tsukishima’s name and the picture of a moon on his mug cup. He turns the mug so that it faces Tsukishima, “Tsukki (moon).”

Takeda smiles as he sets down his mug cup and returns to the conversation.

“The thing is Tsukishima, people perceive you are somewhat…”

“Tempestuous?”

“‘Heinous snarky asshole’ is the term used most often.”

Tsukishima shrugs, clearly unimpressed.

“You might want to work on that.” Takeda smiles before gesturing to Tsukishima that his counselling meeting was over.

“As always, I thank you for your excellent guidance.” Tsukishima gets up from his chair and leans to the side to pick up his bookbag. “I’ll let you get back to Kenshin’s quivering member.” Tsukishima smirks as he exits the office, slinging his bookbag over his shoulder.

“Quivering member, “ Takeda mumbles to himself, “I like that.”

 

* * *

 

Oikawa surrounded by his team members are standing around people watching in the main school quad. One of his players notices Hinata and Kageyama entering the courtyard and nudges Oikawa lightly with his shoulder to get his attention.

“Virgin alert.” He gestures his head towards Hinata’s direction and looks back to see Oikawa smiling.

Hinata and Kageyama pass by the group and both clearly notice the popular player. Oikawa bites his lower lip and winks at the pair of first years. He feels a wave of triumph when a light blush creeps on both of their faces.

“Give it up Oikawa, they’re out of your reach.”

“No one’s out of reach for me.” Oikawa responds, he eyes still following the Hinata and Kageyama.

“Wanna put money on that?”

Oikawa glances back at his team member; “Money, I’ve got. This I’m going to do for fun.”

Unknown to Oikawa and his team, Kenma and Bokuto have also been watching Hinata and Kageyama walk into the courtyard and clearly notice Oikawa’s admiration.

“Who’s that guy?” Kenma gestures to Oikawa.

“Oh, that’s Oikawa Tooru. Captain and ace setter of the other volleyball team at this school. Total tool and part-time model.”

“He’s a model?”

“Mostly regional stuff but I hear companies from all over the world are offering him modelling gigs.”

“Really?”

“Yea, and if _that_ doesn’t blow up his ego, he also has a couple of top colleges offering him a full ride for volleyball.”

Kenma takes a quick look at Oikawa before searching the courtyard for that familiar tuff of orange hair.

“Have you ever seen someone so…”

“What? Vapid?”

“What? No. How could you say that? He’s completely-”

“Conceited?”

“You know I think there’s more to him than you think. I mean, look at him. Look at the way he smiles…look at his eyes…He’s just pure sunshine.”

“I believe what you mean to say, Kenma, is that that boy right there is a snotty little prince wearing a strategically planned outfit making guys like us realize we can never touch him; and guys like, Oikawa, realize they want to.” Bokuto, both unamused and unconvinced, points to Hinata. 

“That, my small feline friend, is what we’ll spend the rest of our lives not having. Put him in your spank bank and move on.”

“I don’t think I can.” Kenma glances at his feet as embarrassment rushed to his face.

“Oh alright,” Bokuto huffed, “you wanna take a shot? Go ahead; he’s looking for a Japanese tutor anyways.”

“Really? That’s perfect.”

“Do you speak Japanese?”

“Not really, but I’ve played enough games to get by.”

 

* * *

  

Tsukishima followed by Akaashi Keiji, his friend (for a lack of a better term) walked towards his car. Akaashi was of decent height but was dwarfed when standing next to Tsukishima or anyone else of similar height. He had short, messy black hair with grey-blue eyes. Calm and composed he was similar to Tsukishima in that they both showed a very short range of emotions in public.

Oikawa pulls up beside them in his flashy red sports car.

“Hey, Tsukki,” Oikawa teases, “didn’t you read last month’s Cosmo? Your hipster look is out.”

Tsukishima rolls his eyes and continued walking.  He watches as Oikawa pulls up further along and slows down next to Hinata and Kageyama who were currently embroiled in a _meaningful_ conversation.

“I know you can overwhelmed…and underwhelmed…but can you ever just be whelmed?” Kageyama asks as he takes a sip from his carton milk.

“I think you can in Europe.” Hinata responds though clearly not sure what’s the right answer.

“Chibi-chan, wanna a ride?” Oikawa calls out.

Hinata and Kageyama look at each other and immediately hop into his car. Oikawa smiles at the two before revving up the engine and driving off. Across the lot, Tsukishima and Akaashi watch the display from inside Tsukishima’s car.

“Well that’s a charming new development.” Akaashi comments sarcastically.

Tsukishima groans with disgust as he starts his car and begins driving out of the school’s parking lot.

Meanwhile, Bokuto was so absorbed in his conversation with Kenma, who was currently engaged in a handheld video game, that he didn’t realize he was walking in the middle of the parking lot. He jumped a couple feet in the air as a pissed off Tsukishima honked at him to get out of the way.

“Look both ways and then cross owl-head!” Tsukishima shouted from his window.

Bokuto quickly scrambled out of the way and watched as the Tsukishima drove off.

“You okay?” Kenma asked still engaged in his videogame.

“Yea, just had a minor encounter with the shrew. That’s your boyfriend’s teammate.”

“That’s Hinata’s teammate?!?” Kenma asks finally looking up from the screen and quickly looks to grasp the last sight of Tsukishima’s car as it pulls out of the parking lot.

“Uh-huh, the spiteful condescending reptilian wretch himself.”

 

* * *

 

Sawamura Daichi, team captain of the Karasuno team and the over-protective part-time at Planned Parenthood enters through the front door of the Karasuno team share house shuffling through the mail. His large build and commanding presence easily gives off his status as the head of the house. He walks over the Tsukishima who is currently engaged in a book.

“Hello Tsukishima, make anyone cry today?”

“Sadly no,” Tsukishima responds as his flips the page, “but it only 4:30.”

Daichi smiles proudly and turns to greet Hinata as he walks in and smiles at his captain.

“Hi Daichi-san!”

“And where have you been?” Tsukishima asks with a judging look as he closes his book.

“Nowhere.” Hinata responds with a sour face.

Daichi, who is still shuffling through the mail, stops at a tan colored envelope. His eyebrows raised in surprise.

“Tsukishima, you have a letter from Waseda University.”

Tsukishima jumps up from his chair and snatches the envelope. He quickly tears it open with excitement and reads the contents silently to himself. He eyes widen with joy and a wide smile is plastered on his face.

“I got in!”

“That’s great Tsukishima but isn’t Waseda on the other side of the Pacific Ocean?”

“Thus the basis of its appeal.”

“Yea, but I thought we decided that you would stay here and go to University of Washington like the rest of us? Plus you’re still a first year Tsukishima. Isn’t it a little too early to be apply for college?”

“As much as it is a compliment for you to think that I would graduate early, it’s just a study abroad for one year.” Tsukishima replies as he looks up from his acceptance letter.

“So, you’re just going to pick up and go for one year?”

“Let’s hope so.” Hinata hops, his eyes brimming at the idea of being Tsukki-free for one year.

Tsukishima gives Hinata a rather spiteful look but turns it into a sly smile.

“Ask Hinata who drove him home today.”

“Tsukishima, don’t change the-drove?” Daichi turns to Hinata, “Who drove you home?”

Hinata pouts at Tsukishima before turning to face Daichi, muscling up the best puppy-dog-I-did-nothing-wrong face.

“Don’t get upset Daichi-san but there’s this guy-”

“Who’s a narcissistic imbecile.” Tsukishima adds in.

“And!” Hinata continues shooting a glare at Tsukishima, “I think he might ask me –“

“Oh I know where this going and the answer is no. It’s always no. What are the house rules? #1, no dating until after you graduate. #2, no dating until after you graduate. That’s it.”

“But that’s so unfair.”

“You wanna know what’s unfair? This is for you too, Tsukishima. This morning I had to help a doctor deliver the news to a fifteen year old that she was pregnant. And do you know what she said to me?”

“Um, I’m a crack whore who should’ve made my sleazy boyfriend wear a condom?” Hinata replied sarcastically as he crossed his arms.

“…close, but no. What she said was, I should have listened to my father.”

“She did not, Daichi-san.”

“Well that’s what she would’ve said if she wasn’t so doped up.”

“And you’re not my dad.”

“I am when you are living in this share house. Those are the rules Hinata. If you can’t follow the rules, then you’re off the team.”

“That’s so unfair, I’m the only person in school who’s not dating.”

“Oh no you’re not. Kageyama, Yamaguchi, and Tsukishima don’t date.”

“And I don’t intend to.” Tsukishima chimes in.

“And why is that again?”

“Have you seen the unhygienic idiotic miscreants that go to that place?”

“Where did _you_ come from? Planet loser?!?”

“As opposed to planet ‘look at me! look at me!’?”

Daichi groans into his palm as Tsukishima and Hinata erupt into their daily arguing.

“Alright!” Tsukishima and Hinata stop their banter and look at their captain. “This is how we’re going to solve this. Old rule out. New rule, Hinata can date,” Hinata lights up and Tsukishima looks a combination of upset and astonished, “when Tsukishima does.”

“But he’s a mutant! What if Tsukki never dates?”

“Then you’ll never date, oh I like that.” Daichi praises himself mentally over his new rule. “And I will get to sleep at night; the deep slumber of a captain whose teammates aren’t out getting sexual transmitted diseases and infections.”

Daichi’s cellphone goes off and he quickly glances down at the screen and heads for the door.

“We’ll talk about this study abroad when I get back.” Daichi calls out to Tsukishima as he head upstairs.

“Can’t wait.”

Hinata groans as Daichi leaves the share house and runs up the stairs to catch up with Tsukishima.

“Can’t you find some desperate enough retard to take you to the movies so I can have just one date?”

Tsukishima stops in his tracks and turns to look down at Hinata.

“I’m sorry. Looks like you’ll just have to miss out on the witty mediocre banter of Oikawa ‘eat me’ Tooru.” Tsukishima replied with sarcasm before returning to walk up the rest of the stairs.

“You suck.” Hinata groaned as he stomped down the stairs.

"Oh boo-hoo, read a book."


	3. Chapter 3

Kenma was busy flying through his current game, silently repeating the dialogue to himself. Kenma wasn't much of a book person. He could read...occasionally but he found video games more interesting. His eyes darted across the thin screen frantically trying to absorb as much information as he can before his scheduled tutoring session with Hinata. He flinches slightly as Hinata arrives and plops down across from him.

"Can we make this quick? Levi Haibara and Morisuke Yaku are having an incredibly public break-up in the quad...again."

"Oh...yeah, um...okay." Kenma mumbled as he put away his videogame console and searched for his copy of the Japanese textbook.

"I was thinking we could start with pronunciation, if that's alright."

"Oh, I got pronunciation down. It's just reading and writing I need help with." Hinata smiled.

"Oh..okay...we could read about...food...or maybe we could eat some together. Maybe Saturday night?"

Hinata smiled and leaned forward on that table suddenly realizing that his new Japanese tutor was asking him out.

"Wait, you're asking me out? That's so cute...what was your name again?"

"Um, Kenma. Listen," Kenma straighten himself a bit before continuing, "I know your captain doesn't let you date but I thought that if it was for Japanese class then-"

"Oh, wait a minute Kensuke"

"Kenma."

"My captain just came up with a new rule. I can date when Tsukishima does."

"Really?!?" Kenma shuffled in his seat as he leaned forward on the table. "Well, what do you think about apple pie? I read about this place that is supposed to have the best-"

"Um beaucoup problemo, Kenshin. In case you haven't heard, my teammate is a particular hideous breed of loser."

"Um, it's Kenma. I noticed Tsukishima is a little anti-social...why is that?"

"Unsolved mystery." Hinata shrugged. "He used to be really out-going and popular and then it's like he got sick of it all of sudden. I'm pretty sure there's a scientifically proven reason why but I just think he's incapable of human interaction."

"Well," Kenma tugged lightly on his bangs, realizing how close Hinata was made him feel embarrassed; "I'm sure that there are lots of guy who wouldn't mind going out with a ...difficult person. I mean, people jump out of airplanes, or bungee jump and stuff. It would be like extreme dating."

"You think you could find someone _that_ extreme?"

"Why not?"

Kenma hid behind his bangs as Hinata reached out and touches his arm. He could feel the heat rise to his ears.

"You'd do that for me?"

Kenma nodded furiously. "I mean...you know...I could look into it." He took a tentative glance from behind his bangs and felt more heat at the sight of Hinata smiling at him.

 

* * *

 

Kenma followed Bokuto as they walked down a set of concrete steps. They walked into a vacant classroom where several students were sitting, some were browsing on their phones others were reading or doing homework; they looked like average students.

"Welp, these are all the candidates I could find. What do ya think?"

Kenma shrugged his shoulders and zipped open his backpack to pull out his video game console. He flipped the switch and watched as the screen blinked to life. To be completely honest, Kenma didn't think any of the candidates were even remotely adequate.

"Hey, hey, heeeyy~ How ya doin?" Bokuto nodded as he was met with a silence. "So, would any of you be interested in dating Kei Tsukishima?"

One candidate started laughing hysterically, another just stared in complete silence, while another screamed in sheer horror before shooting out the classroom

"Oh, I've never been that ripped." A clearly stoned candidate responded before shuffling into his backpack and pulling out a bag of Cheetos.

"Maybe if we were the last two people in the world and there were no sheep...are there sheep?" Another responded.

"Shit, I wouldn't do that even if you paid me a million dollars."

"Welp," Bokuto put his hands on hips before turning to look back at Kenma, "guess we'll have to keep looking."

Several dissection charts of various animal anatomies hang on the walls. Bokuto and Kenma, who is still playing away on his videogame console, sit around a tray holding an already completed dissected frog (thanks to Kenma) while others are still busy dissecting. Bokuto turns in his stool to look at Kuroo, who was partner-less, and busy playing with his specimen.

Bokuto cocked an eyebrow before turning back in his seat.

"Did I or did I not tell you it was pointless? No one will go out with Tsukishima."

Bokuto turns around in his stool again and sees Kuroo pull out a butterfly knife and impales his frog violently. He looks up as gives his signature feline smirk. Kenma has noticed the display.

"What about him?" Kenma nods to Kuroo.

"Him? Oh, no no no. He's a criminal." Bokuto taps Kenma at the shoulder trying to get him to stop looking at the delinquent.

"Hey," he whispers, "don't look at him. I heard he set a state trooper on fire and just finished doing a year."

"He must be horny then." Kenma mumbled as he tapped away at his game.

"I'm serious, Kenma. He's bad news. He sold his own liver on the black market for a set of new volleyball sneakers."

Kenma jolted as he heard the Bunsen burner flare on. He took a tentative look over his shoulder and watched as Kuroo took out a cigarette and leaned forward to light it on the flame. He sighs with frustration as the instructor pulls out the cigarette from his mouth and puts it out. He clicks his tongue moved to playing with the Bunsen burner instead.

"I think he's our guy." Kenma whispers to Bokuto as he turns back to playing his game.

 

* * *

 

Kenma and Bokuto cautiously walk into the school's woodshop. They look around and watch as the boys along with a few girls busy themselves with woodwork; some nailing their pieces of wood while others were busy with sawing off pieces at the several table saws.  Kenma spots Kuroo and walks up without any fear in his steps.

"You're Tetsurou Kuroo, right?"

Kuroo glances at Kenma for a brief second and eyes the Japanese textbook he was holding. He smirks before brandishing a loud power tool and drills a hole in the middle of the textbook.

Kenma looks down at his now destroyed textbook and looks up at Kuroo.

"I'll come back another time then."

Kenma does a quick about-face and pulls at Bokuto's sleeve signaling him that they were leaving. Kuroo looks at the retreating pair before returning to his woodwork.

"Well, that worked." Bokuto comments as they leave the woodshop and enter one of the many hallways.

"How are we going to get him to date Tsukishima?"

"I don't know...we could pay him?" Kenma mumbles as he looks at his destroyed textbook. "But I don't have that kind of money."

"So we need a backer."

"A what?"

"Someone with money, who's stupid enough to spend it." Bokuto bites his tongue and snaps his finger, pointing to Kenma that he knew just the right person.

They walk into the cafeteria and Bokuto beelines to the table Oikawa currently sitting at with his teammates. Bokuto casually sits down next to Oikawa who was currently flipping through his phone searching for the best selfie to upload to his Instragram account. Bokuto smiles as he looks around the table, clearly he wasn't welcomed.

"Holy shit, is that a peach Fruit Roll-Up? You don't see many of them nowad-"

Oikawa's teammate grabs at Bokuto's wrist as he reaches for the sticky sweet snack. Bokuto gives a nervous laugh and withdraws his hand.

"Are you lost?" Oikawa asks as he continues flipping through his phone.

"No, actually, I just came to have a little talk."

"We don't talk." Oikawa gives a cold stare as he looks up from his phone. "Especially to owls."

"Well, I thought I'd run an idea by you."

"Not interested. Fly away, owl-boy."

"Just hear me out."

Bokuto grunts lightly as Oikawa grabs him by the side of his head. He pulls out a black marker and bites off the cap before proceeding to draw something on Bokuto's cheek.

"You want Hinata, right? But he can't go out with you because Tsukishima is basically the spawn of Satan and no one will go out with him, right?"

"Does this conversation have a purpose?" Oikawa interrupts before biting his tongue as he continues drawing on Bokuto's cheek.

"Well, what I think you need to do is hire a guy who'll go out with him. Someone who doesn't scare easily."

Bokuto points to Kuroo who has just walked into the cafeteria and steals a peach from a passing by student and takes a generous bite from it. He bites at the pit and spits it out before proceeding to finish the rest of the fruit.

"That guy?" Oikawa gestures with his chin, "I heard he ate a live duck once."

"Everything but the beak and feet. Clearly he's a good investment."

Oikawa caps the marker and rolls it on the table. He eyes Bokuto suspiciously.

"What's in it for you?"

"A couple practice games and if I say hello to you, you say hello back."

"Cool by association." Oikawa takes another glance at Kuroo, "I'll think about it."

Bokuto smiles and bobs his head as he looks around the table again.

"We're done here."

"Yeah." Bokuto quickly leaves the table and walks back to where Kenma is waiting, still playing his videogame. Bokuto wondered if Kenma ever put that console down.

"Why are you getting _him_ involved?"

Bokuto smirked as he could see Kenma was clearly upset as he pushed the buttons of his console with slight frustration.

"Now, now. Relax there my small feline friend." Kenma shot him a glare before returning to his game. "We'll just let him pretend he's calling the shot. While he's busy setting things up, you'll have time with Hinata."

"You might want to wash your face." Kenma mumbles before walking off.

Bokuto nods and quickly notices the passing by students pointing and trying to hide their laughing. "...I have a dick on my face, don't I."

 

* * *

 

 

Bogie Lowenstien stands in perfect golf stance as his club of future yuppies are gathered behind him. Some have notepads out and are viciously taking notes.

"Now remember guys, grip it and rip it." Bogie hits the golf ball and watches it as it flies down into the stadium field where a student holding a basket of gold balls collects it. The Karasuno volleyball team is currently practicing due to the indoor stadium is in current use.

Oikawa makes his way towards Kuroo who is sitting on the bleachers taking a smoking break. He gives a condescending smile at feline-looking delinquent.

"I had some great duck last night."

"Do I know you?" Kuroo responds as he purposely blows his smoke out in Oikawa's direction before putting out the cigarette.

"See that tall blonde boy."

Kuroo turns to see Tsukishima playing on the field.

"Yeah?"

"That's Kei Tsukishima. I want you to go out with him."

"Yeah, sure thing pretty boy." Kuroo scoffs sarcastically.

"Look I can't take out his teammate until Tsukki starts dating. You see, their captain's crazy. He's got this rule where the players-"

"That's really touching but not my problem."

"Would you be willing to make it your problem if I provide a generous compensation?"

Kuroo snorts, "You're going to _pay_ me to take out some dude?"

"Yep." Oikawa smiles.

Kuroo leans his head to the side, taking another look at Tsukishima.

"How much?"

"Twenty bucks."

Their conversations is paused momentarily as they watch Tsukishima violently block a spike which resulted in the spiker getting hit square in the face. Oikawa licks his lips before turning to look back at Kuroo.

"Fine, thirty bucks."

"Well , let's think about this. We go to the movies, that's, uh, fifteen bucks. We get popcorn, that's" Kuroo shrugs, "fifty-three bucks. Oh, and he'll want some kind of candy, probably something strawberry flavored. So, we're looking at seventy-five bucks."

Oikawa scoffs and bites the tip of his tongue in annoyance.

"This isn't a negotiation. Take it or leave it, dumpster boy."

"Sixty bucks and we've got a deal, Romeo."

Oikawa clicks his tongue before pulling out his wallet and handing Kuroo fifty bucks.

"Nice doing business with you." Kuroo smirks as he takes the fifty.

"You better get this done." Oikawa warns before walking off.

Kuroo looks over the field and watches Tsukishima play. Their captain calls them over and Tsukishima wipes the forming sweat from his hairline with his forearm before jogging over.

"Good practice. Take a thirty minute break."

Kuroo ran a hand through his hair before getting up from the bleachers and walking over to Tsukishima. Tsukishima, currently coated with a thin coat of sweat, is panting as he tried to steady his breathing. He takes a quick glance at Kuroo before taking a generous sip from his water bottle.

"Hey there, birdie. How you doin'?"

"Sweating like a pig, actually. And yourself?"

"Now there's a way to get a guy's attention?" Kuroo gives his signature smirk.

Tsukishima scoffs, "My one mission in life." He stops in his tracks undaunted and crossed his arms. "But obviously I've struck your fancy. So, in a strange way, it worked. The world makes sense again."

Tsukishima continues walking his laps around the field and grumbles as Kuroo continues to follow him.

"So I'll pick you up Friday night?"

"Oh, right." Tsukishima scoffs with sarcasm. "Friday, uh huh."

"I'll take you to places you've never been before. You know, show you the world."

"What, like the 7-Eleven on Broadway? Do you even know my name?"

"I know a lot more than you think." Kuroo shrugs.

"Ha, I doubt that."

Tsukishima jogs off leaving Kuroo alone on the sidelines. Across the field, Bokuto and Kenma watch.

"We're screwed."

"Hey, hey, heeeyy~ I don't want to hear that defeatist attitude."

"We're screwed." Kenma repeats, this time with slight enthusiasm.

"There ya go, Kenma." Bokuto winks and gives him a thumbs-up. "We'll just have to come up with the perfect situation to get the plan moving."

 

* * *

 

Back at the Karasuno share house, Tsukishima finishes washing his face in the sink as Hinata enters behind him. Hianta cocks his head to the side as he looks at Tsukishima's reflection.

"Have you ever considered trying a new look? I mean, you could have some definite potential under all that hostility." Hinata comments as he plays with Tsukishima's glasses.

"I'm not hostile." Tsukishima responds as he grabs back his glasses and puts them on. "I'm annoyed."

"Why don't you try being nice, for once? People wouldn't know what to think."

"You forget, I don't care what people think." Tsukishima pushes against Hianta lightly as he exits the bathroom.

"Yes, you do." Hinata replies as he treads after Tsukishima as they enter their shared room.

"No, I don't. And you don't always have to be who they want you to be, you know."

"I happen to like being adored, thank you very much."

Hinata pulls out a worn out Karasuno jersey and changes into it. It's a little bit too big for him but not too big. He walks up to the full-body mirror hanging on their door and inspects himself. Tsukishima immediately recognizes who that jersey belonged to and furrows his brows slightly. 

"Where'd you get that?"

"Daichi-san found it in a storage box last week."

"And you're just going to start wearing it now?"

Hinata gives an angry pout at Tsukishima, who is clearly upset.

"It's not like he's coming back to claim them. And besides," Hinata turns back to admire his reflection, "I'm only going to wear it as a nightshirt."

Tsukishima sneers at Hinata's reflection before grabbing a couple of things from his side of the room and leaving the share house. He starts his car and drives downtown. He figured stopping by and browsing the used bookstore would help distract him.

He scanned the various shelves, picking out books that looked interesting and glossed over the summaries written on the back. He decided on a couple books and quickly paid for them at the cashier before exiting back to his car. He groaned as he saw Kuroo waiting for him, leaning casually against his car.

"Nice ride. Well, I mean if you into being environmentally friendly." Kuroo comments.

"Are you following me?"

"I was in the laundry mat and I saw your car and came over to say hi."

"Hi."

Tsukishima moves to open his car but Kuroo slides over, blocking his way. He glared at him only to be met with a feline-smirk.

"Not a big talker?" Kuroo asks as he cocks his head to the side.

"Depends on the topic. My vehicle of choice doesn't really whip me into a verbal frenzy."

Kuroo is genuinely intrigued by Tsukishima's resistance and crosses his arms as he relaxes further against the car.

"You're not afraid of me, are you?"

"Why would I be?"

"Most people are."

"Well, I'm not."

"Well, maybe you're not afraid of me but I'm sure you've definitely thought about me naked." Kuroo wiggles his eyebrows and winks as he widens his smirk.

"Am I that transparent?" Tsukishima sarcastically asks. "I want you, I need you. Oh baby, oh baby." Tsukishima rolls his eyes and opens the door, forcing Kuroo out of the way.

He starts to pull out of the parking space but is blocked by Oikawa's sports car, which pulls up perpendicular to Tsukishima's rear and parks. Oikawa gets out of the car and walks by, heading into a store.

"What is it, asshole day?" Tsukishima groans as he hits his palms against the steering wheel.

"Do you mind?" Tsukishima annoyingly calls out to Oikawa.

"Not at all."

Tsukishima takes a deep breath and grinds his teeth before starting up his car again and backs up fast. His environmentally friendly vehicle crashes into the door of Oikawa's precious ego-speedster. Kuroo watches with a delighted grin on his face as Oikawa rushes out of the store to his precious car.

"You dick!"

Tsukishima looks back with an innocent look of surprise.

"Whoops." He sarcastically mumbles.

"Whoops?!?" Daichi paces as Tsukishima sits calmly on the couch. "I'm pretty sure your insurance doesn't cover PMS. Heck, _my_ insurance doesn't cover PMS!"

Tsukishima rolls his eyes and leans over to grab a book and flipped it open to the first page.

"Tell them I had a seizure or something."

"Is this about the study abroad at Waseda? Is this some sick form of punishment because I want you to stay here for the team?"

"Are you punishing me because you and Sugawara-san are going through another marital argument?"

"You think you could leave him out of this?" Daichi asked, with slight annoyance, as he put his hands on his hips.

Tsukishima closed his book and stood up.

"Fine, then stop making my decisions for me."

"I'm your captain. It's my right as long as you live under this roof."

"Oh, so what I want doesn't matter?"

"You're sixteen; you don't know what you want and even when you're a third year, like me, you still won't know what you want. "

"I want to study abroad at an international school! I want you to trust me to make own choices and I want you to stop trying to control my life just because you can't control yours."

"Oh yeah? Well, you know what I want-"

"Other than to apologize to Sugawara-san and have loud make-up sex which ruins my good sleep?"

Daichi's cellphone goes off. He sighs with frustration as he pulls the vibrating phone from his pocket and checks the message.

"We'll continue this later."

"Can't wait."

"And watch it with the sassy mouth, Tsukishima." Daichi warns as he walks into a different part of the house.

Tsukishima heads out of the living room and is intercepted by Hinata, who has just got off of the phone.

"Did you just crash into Oikawa's car?"

"Yep, looks like you're going to have to take the bus with Kageyama now."

"Has the fact that you've gone completely psycho managed to escape your attention?"

"Nope, not yet." Tsukishima walks off and smirks as Hinata calls out for Daichi.

 

* * *

 

Kuroo shuts his locker revealing a very livid Oikawa. Kuroo tires hiding a grin as he could clearly see Oikawa fuming.

"When I give out sixty bucks, I expect results."

"I'm on it."

"Watching that snarky dick violate my car doesn't count as a date. If you don't get any, I don't get any. So go get some."

Oikawa starts walking off but stops in his tracks as Kuroo calls out to him.

"I just upped my price."

"What?" Oikawa turns back and glares at grinning cat.

"A hundred bucks per date. In advanced."

Oikawa scoffs. "Forget it."

"Forget his teammate, then."

Oikawa thinks for a moment, grinding his teeth in frustration. He walks back and pulls out two fifties from his wallet. He shoves it into Kuroo's chest.

"You better hope you're as smooth as you think you are, Kuroo."

Kuroo takes the money with a wide grin.


	4. Chapter 4

Kenma and Bokuto pushed against each other as they shuffled back into the woodshop, though it was an unfair battle as Bokuto was clearly the stronger of the two.

"Go." Kenma whispered.

"No, you go." Bokuto whispered back.

"I went last time."

Bokuto pushed on Kenma's back pushing him closer to Kuroo who was currently working on something at the buffer. Kenma tentatively makes his way closer and coughs into a fist. Kuroo takes a look before returning back to his work.

"We know what you're trying to do with Kei Tsukishima."

"Oh yeah? And what do you plan to do about it?"

"Help you out?"

Kuroo stops his work and turned to face the pair. "Why's that?"

Bokuto walks up and stands next to Kuroo.

"The situation is, my boy Kenma here has a major crush on Hinata Shouyou."

"What's up with this dude? Does he have beer flavored nipples or something?"

"Hey!"

"I speak truthfully when I say that Kenma's love is pure. Purer than say - Tooru Oikawa's"

"Look, I'm only in it for the cash. Tooru can plow it in whoever he wants."

"Look, Tetsurou, Tetsu, can I call you Tetsu?" Bokuto shifts in front of Kenma preventing him from getting into Kuroo's personal space and doing something stupid -like punching him in the face...though it would be fun to watch. "Lemme explain, we set this whole thing up so that Kenma can get the guy. Oikawa is just a pawn."

"So, what? You two are gonna help me tame the wild beast?"

Bokuto grins. "We'll do some research, ya know, find out what he likes and stuff. We're your guys."

"Strictly a non-prison-movie type of way." Kenma adds as he leans to side poking his head from behind Bokuto's large frame.

"Friday night. Bogie Lowenstien is having a party. That's the perfect opportunity."

"For what?"

"To take out Tsukki of course."

Kuroo nods at the idea, "I'll think about it."

Kuroo walks away, leaving Bokuto beaming down at Kenma.

"Now, to set up the party." Bokuto grins as he holds up a large stack of flyers.

The party invitation Bokuto holds up advertises a "free beer" party with the words "don't call" and "just show up" in bold and large arrow marks pointing to Bogie's address. Bokuto dumps the flyers down the school stairwell and watches as students reach out and grab the falling colorful papers.

Later, Oikawa is standing at his open locker with Hinata. He is currently holding up two identical glamour model shots. In one, he's wearing a tight fit white shirt and in the other, the same shirt only in black.

"Which do you think is better?"

"Ummmm," Hinata glances between the two photos, "I think I like the white one better."

"Yeah, it's more..."

"Pensive?"

"Damn, I was going for thoughtful." He quickly stores that photos back into his locker and shuts it. "So, you going to Bogie's thing Friday night?"

"Yeah, I might."

Oikawa gives Hinata a flirtatious smile. "Good, 'cause I won't bother if you won't be there."

The class bell rings and Oikawa ruffles Hinata's hair before walking off to class.

"See you there, Chibi-chan~<3"

Kenma spots Hinata walking to class and jogs up to him. The sunset orange-haired boy immediately greets him and they walk to their classes in unison.

"So, have you heard about Bogey Lowenstien's party?"

"Yes, and I really really _really_ wanna go, but I can't. Not unless Tsukishima goes." Hinata pouts.

"Yeah, I'm working on it."  Kenma runs a nervous hand through his hair. "So far, he's not going for my guy...he's not a..."

"Oh no, I found an otome game  in his drawer once. I think it was called, Uta no Prince-Sama or something. So, I'm pretty sure he's only harboring same-sex tendencies just like everybody else on the team."

"Okay," Kenma quickly ran through his mental database on games and reviewed all the information he had on said game -if he remembered correctly is was a dating sim with a punch of pretty guys...some having oddly colored hair, "so...that's the kind of guy he likes, pretty guys?"

"I don't know. All I've ever heard him say is that he would rather die before dating a guy who smokes."

Kenma nods, mentally storing the information. "What else?"

"You're asking me to investigate the inner workings of my teammate's twisted mind? Are you trying to get me murdered?"

"Nothing else has worked." Kenma shrugged.

Hinata bit his lip as he contemplated his options.

"Meet me in the quad after school. Tsukishima usually hits the bookstore with Akaashi on Mondays, we should have house to ourselves after school."

After school, Kenma follows Hinata back to the Karasuno share house and looks around the shared room as Hinata files through Tsukishima's drawers. He keeps to Tsukishima's side of the room but takes occasional glances to Hinata's side, taking mental notes.

"Okay, here we go." Hinata walks up to Kenma and hands him various papers.

"Here is his class schedule, reading list, schedule book, cafe coupons, concert tickets."

Hinata moves back and continues rummaging through the drawers.

"Ah-ha!" Kenma looks up from the papers to see Hinata pull out a pair of black boxer-brief that looked more like speedos than briefs given how high the underwear rises. "Black panties."

"What does that mean?"

"Tsukishima wants to have sex some day." Hinata says as he looks at the dangling underwear.

Kenma immediately grew red in the face, flustered by the intimate detail.

"Well...he could just like the color."

"You don't own black underwear unless you want someone to see it."

Kenma shifts his weight and takes a short glance as Hinata's side of the room.

"Oh...so...um, can I see your side of the room?"

Hinata goes slightly red and jumps in front of Kenma, flailing his arms in a sad attempt to hide his part of the room.

"No! I mean, uh, it's pretty messy and some things are private."

"Oh..okay."

 

* * *

 

Bokuto and Kenma arrive in Bokuto's owled-out convertible and parked next to a group of hard-looking bikers on heavy bikes. Kenma was too distracted by how many owl merchandise Bokuto had in his car to see the intimidating stares of the next-door bikers. Bokuto gives the bikers a genuine smile as he turns off the engine. They get out of the car and enter the bar. Weaving their way through the humid bar atmosphere, they ignore the surprised stares from some of the bar patrons.

"Hmmmm, so this is what a bar looks like?"

"Don't touch anything!" Bokuto whispers as he swats at Kenma's curious hand. "You could get hepatitis."

They find Kuroo, who is currently playing pool, and start bee-lining to him. Kuroo spots them and gives them his signature feline-grin as he takes his game-winning shot.  As he turns to face them, a player hands him a large wad of cash before shuffling off to play at another table.

"Whatcha got for me?"

"Some stuff." Kenma pulls his backpack to his chest and rummages through looking for the papers on Tsukishima.

"Just one question," Bokuto asks as Kuroo is about to take a sip from his beer, "should you be drinking when you don't have a liver?"

"What?!"

"First thing: Tsukishima hates smokers."

Bokuto plucks out the cigarette out of Kuroo's fingers and drops it to the floor. Kuroo clearly isn't pleased.

"So you're telling me I'm a 'non-smoker'?"

Bokuto nods.

"And there's another problem. Hinata said that Tsukishima likes - pretty guys."

They are met with silence and Kuroo looks at them offended.

"Are you telling me I'm not a pretty guy?"

"Oh, no. You're very pretty! Gorgeous! The cat's meow!" Bokuto responds as Kenma continues rummaging through his backpack. He pulls out a thin stack of papers and hands them to Kuroo.

"He likes strawberry shortcakes, or anything that has strawberries in them, dinosaurs, and visual kei bands -those are boy rock bands who wear make-up and stuff-. Here's a list of the CDs that he has in his room and other things."

Kuroo looks through the papers briefly before cocking an eyebrow at the two.

"So, I'm supposed to buy him some strawberry filled cake, dinosaurs, and listen to guys who wear makeup and attempt to make rock music?"

"Have you ever been to Club Rock? His favorite band is playing there tomorrow night."

Kuroo grimaces slightly before biting the tip of his tongue. "I can't be seen at Club Rock."

"Just assail your ears for one night." Bokuto persuades as he hangs an arm over his shoulders.

"He has a pair of black boxer briefs, if that helps."

Kuroo glances at the two once more before sighing with defeat.

 

* * *

 

At Club Rock, Kuroo walks down the hallway toward the stage and is eyed suspiciously by various girls in the hall. He enters the main floor and searches the crowd. He instantly spots Tsukishima dancing with Akasshi. He smiles a little as the sight of Tsukishima dancing with the heavy beat, clearly lost in the music. He sits at the bar and asks the bartender for a glass of water.

"I need water." Tsukishima shouts to Akaashi over the blaring rock music. He heads over to the bar and asks the bartender for two water bottles. He spots Kuroo and sneers at him.

"If you're planning on asking me out again, you might as well just get it- "

"Do you mind? You're kind ruining this for me." Kuroo interrupts as he pretends to be enjoying the music.

"You're not surrounded by your usual cloud of smoke."

"I know, I quit. Apparently they're bad for you. Plus, I started playing volleyball again."

"Really?" Tsukishima was too surprised to be sarcastic.

"You know, these guys are no Acid Black Cherry or Gazette, but they're not bad."

Kuroo finishes his glass and heads into the crowd. Tsukishima is stunned for a moment but rushes after him.

"You know who Acid Black Cherry are?"

"Why? Don't you?"

The song fades to the end and there is a moment of silence in the club as Kuroo continues to use his club-volume voice.

"You know, I was watching you out there before and I've never seen you look so sexy."

The crowd of girls hears him clearly and starts giggling. Kuroo grins and stares at his feet with embarrassment. Tsukishima gives a light snort and tries to keep himself from joining with the rest of the crowd.

"Come to Bogie's part with me."

"You don't give up do you?"

Tsukishima begins walking away and weaving through the crowd. As the music starts up again.

"Was that a yes?" Kuroo calls out over the crowd.

"No." Tsukishima shouts back over his shoulder.

"Well, was that a no?"

"No."

Kuroo grins.

"I'll see you at 9:30."

 

* * *

 

Hinata and Kageyama, dressed far nicer than their usual casual clothes, quietly sneak down the stairs in a sad attempt to sneak out the door. Daichi, currently reading the daily newspaper, is facing the opposite direction along with Koushi Sugawara who was curled up on the couch reading a rather large novel.

Sugawara was of average height and slender build. He has light grey hair -which surprisingly natural- and hazel eyes. His charm point -according to Daichi- was the tiny beauty mark under his left eye. If anything, Sugawara was the mom of the team -though no one allowed him to cook since he had a habit of making things a little _too_ spicy.

"Should've used the window." Daichi calls out.

Hinata and Kageyama straighten their posture and try pretending that everything is normal.

"Hi, Daichi-san."

Daichi neatly folds his newspaper before getting up from his chair and making his way to the two first-years.

"And where are we going?"

Sugawara glances over his shoulder before placing a bookmark into his book and turning around to watch.

"Well, if you must know Daichi-san, a small study group of friends."

"Otherwise known as an orgy?"

"Daichi-san, it's just a party." Kageyama tries to persuade.

"And Hell is just a sauna."

Tsukishima walks down the stairs, oblivious as to what's going on. He stops and stares before continuing down that stairs and heading over to where Sugawara was sitting.

"You know about this party?"

Tsukishima shrugs before noticing Sugawara's empty teacup and decides to take it to the kitchen.

"People expect me and Kageyama to be there."

"If Tsukishima isn't going, then you're not going."

Hinata turns to Tsukishima who as returned from the kitchen with a freshly brewed cup of tea for Sugawara.

"Can't you be normal for just one night?"

"Define normal?"

Tsukishima walks over and give the teacup to Sugawara before taking a seat next to him. Hinata stomps over to the couch and pouts at Tsukishima.

"Bogie Lowenstien's party is normal."

"What's a Bogie Lowenstien?" Sugawara asks before looking to Daichi to see if he knew and was only met with a shrug.

"Bogie's party is just a lame excuse for all the plebeians at our school to drink beer and rub up against each other in the hopes of distracting themselves from their pathetic emptiness of their-"

"Meaningless, consumer-driven lives." Hinata chimes in and finishes Tsukishima's sentence - a rant that he has clearly heard being preached before.

Hinata gives Tsukishima an innocent pleading look.

"Can you, for just one night, forget that you're completely wacko and be my teammate for once? Please, Tsukki."

Tsukishima grinds his jaw as he thinks over his options.

"C'mon Tsukki, please do this for me."

Tsukishima sighs in defeat. "Fine, I'll make an appearance."

Hinata beams at Kageyama and they both jump, bursting with thrilled excitement.

"It starts." Daichi mutters to himself.

"It's only a party, Daichi. I'm sure Tsukishima will look out for them." Sugawara says as he re-opens his book.

Daichi gives a look at Sugawara before looking back at Hinata.

"I want you to wear the belly."

Kageyama gasps and Hinata goes in complete shock.

"Not all night. Just around the living room for five minutes so you can understand the full weight of your decisions." Daichi calls out as he rushes into the closet and pulls out a padded-faux pregnancy jacket.

Hinata slumps his shoulders and holds out his arms in defeat. He hangs it on Hinata.

"Daichi-san, I really don't think-"

"Listen to me. Even though you can't physically get pregnant, I want you to picture wearing this under your shirt every time you even think about kissing someone."

Tsukishima tried holding back his laughter at the sight of a pregnant Hinata.

"I'm going now."

"Wait," Daichi calls out to Tsukishima. "Tsukishima, wait a minute. Now no drinking; no drugs; no kissing; no tattoos; no piercing; _no_ ritual animal slaughter of any kind."

Daichi takes a brief glance at Suga, "Oh god Suga, I'm giving them ideas."

Tsukishima opens that door and is surprised to find Kuroo standing there waiting for him.

"What are you doing here?"

"9:30 right?"

Tsukishima stands still in complete shock.

"I know I'm a bit early."

"It doesn't matter, I'm driving."

Tsukishima quickly grabs his coat and heads out the door. Kuroo peaks in behind Tsukishima. He raises his eyebrows in surprise at the sight of Hinata wearing a faux-pregnancy suit.

"Who knocked up your teammate?"

Hinata gives an angry pout at Kuroo before Tsukishima closes the door.


	5. Chapter 5

Bokuto and Kenma -well, technically speaking, it's only Bokuto- are busy preparing themselves for the party in Bokuto's room. Bokuto is busy applying various hair products into his hair, making sure his spikes were just right.

"And then Hinata and I stayed at the gym until 10:00 pm because- and this is a direct quote- 'I really give him the perfect tosses'."

"Uh-huh," Bokuto responds though he's clearly not paying attention; "Now, how do I look?"

Kenma gives a quick scan.

"Like a horned-owl."

"Perfect."

A huge pack of party-goers, some carrying beer kegs and ready to have some fun, charge through the night like hungry wolves. They walk quickly up to Bogie's well-lit, upscale suburban house. Currently inside, Bogie plays host to some stiff-looking students sitting on floral patterned sofas in a very expensive-looking living room. Bogie turns quickly as he hears the doorbell ring.

"That must be Nigel with the casserole."

Before he reaches for the doorknob, the house is stampeded with partiers. Within seconds, the house is filled to capacity. A DJ is suddenly blasting music while booze of various kinds is scattered everywhere. Upstairs, Bokuto and Kenma weave through the crowd, both holding cans of cheap beer. Bokuto attempts to hit on some pretty looking chicks but is turned down flat. Kenma sets down his untouched can of beer on a table and walks off. He was never a fan of the drink - in the way it tasted and the way is caused people to make bad decisions or make complete fools of themselves-.

Across the way, Tsukishima and Kuroo come up the stairs to the balcony. Kuroo encounters a very drunk and happy Yaku. He throws himself on Kuroo and grips his shirt.

"Kuroo! Kiss me!"

Kuroo quickly looks around and spots a lonely Lev, sitting on a chair. He turns Yaku and nudges him into Lev's arm, clearly unaware that they were once involved.

"Kiss him."

Yaku immediately straddles himself on Lev's lap and pulls him into a heated drunken kiss. Lev manages to tear himself away for a moment and grabs Kuroo's sleeve.

"Thanks Captain." Lev breathes before being pulled back into another heated sloppy drunk kiss.

Meanwhile, Tsukishima has made his way into another room where Oikawa meets him. He rolls his eyes briefly before crossing his arms in defiance.

"Lookin' cute Tsukki." Oikawa teases as he gives Tsukishima his signature wink.

Tsukishima gives him a dark look before suddenly gasping and points at Oikawa's hair.

"Oh my god, is that a grey hair?!?"

Oikawa gets flustered for a moment before recovering quickly and jogging after Tsukishima who has already started walking away.

"Where ya goin' sweet thing?"

"Away."

"Your precious decoy teammate here?"

"Stay away from Hinata."

Oikawa smirks before stepping into Tsukishima's personal space. Though Tsukishima was taller, Oikawa had the muscle mass to take him out with one strike. Oikawa smirks and winks at Tsukishima one more time.

"Oh, I'll stay away. But I can't guarantee he'll stay away from me."

A ruckus sounds from the next room and a slow chanting begins to grow.

"Fight, fight, fight, fight, fight."

"Oooo, fight!" Oikawa runs off to watch.

Two guys are in an intense brawl in the expensive living room. Bogie watches in horror.

"Please take this outside!"

The boys continue to wrestle, throwing several punches at each other before crashing through the glass doors. The crowd winces in unison before cheering again at the two boys continue their brawl.

"Thank you." Bogie comments before sighing at the damage.

Tsukishima pushes through the gathered crowd to get away and encounters Oikawa with Hinata standing next to him.

"Hey Tsukki," Oikawa calls out over the crowd, "look who found me."

As Oikawa and Hinata turn to walk away, Tsukishima grabs Hinata's arm in a last attempt to warn him about Oikawa.

"Hinata, wait!"

"Please don't address me in public." Hinata responds, slightly annoyed as he pulls his arm back.

"Wait, there's something I need to tell you."

"Look, I'm trying to enjoy my adolescence, why don't you do that same."

Oikawa grins and ushers Hinata away leaving a dejected Tsukishima. A guy with a tray of shots walks past Tsukishima and he snatches a glass and down it with a grimace at the intense unfamiliar discomfort. Kuroo appears behind him and it surprised at Tsukishima's sudden interest in drinking.

"Where have you been?" Kuroo asks as Tsukishima grabs another shot and downs it again.

"I'm getting trashed, man. Isn't that what you're supposed to do at a party?" Tsukishima responds with a mocking tone.

"I dunno, I say do what you wanna do."

"Later." Tsukishima grabs a brightly colored cocktail and weaves through the crowd.

Meanwhile, Bokuto is busy rocking out unfamiliar dance moves and is unaware at the stares he was getting. Kenma walks up to him, clearly searching the crowd for a tuff of orange hair.

"Hey, have you seen Shouyou around anywhere?"

Bokuto spots Hinata and Kageyama descending down the stairs and points Kenma in their direction before rocking out to his own dance moves again.

"Just feel the love, cat-boy."

Kenma walks over to the Karasuno first-years.

"Hi Shouyou."

'Oh, hi Kenma...um you know Kageyama?"

The atmosphere became awkward between them as Hinata lightly pushes Kageyama between them.

"Yes, I think we have Literature together."

Kageyama gives Hinata a clearly unamused look.

"So, uh, you look nice tonight."

"umm thanks." Hinata runs a nervous hand through his hair.

Oikawa comes down the stairs and overhears Kenma's compliment.

"Well I look amazing." He chimes in.

He snakes an arm around Hinata's waist and give Kenma a smug look.

"Let's go Chibi-chan. We're all congregating around the outside pool."

"Um, I'll see you around, okay Kenma?" Hinata calls out over his shoulder as Oikawa ushers him and Kageyama off to another part of the house. Kenma is crushed. Overwhelmed by the mass of people, Kenma walks quickly to the outside and finds an empty bench to play his video game.

Hinata walks next to Oikawa who is currently talking about his modeling along with his recent volleyball victories.

"So, I've got this Pocapi Sweat commercial coming up and this high-fashion spread- that's gonna be huge." He pauses to place his empty can of cheap beer on top of a large beer-can pyramid. He then strikes a pose and Hinata isn't watching.

"See what I did there?"

"Uh huh." Hinata nods as he pretends to be watching though he's clearly bored out of his mind.

"That's underwear. I'll show you bathing suit next." Oikawa strikes another pose. It's exactly the same.

"See the difference?"

Hinata nods and turns away looking bored. He admired Oikawa for his well-known setting and volleyball talent, but he was just beginning to see just how narcissistic the guy actually was. He hated to admit it but Tsukishima was right. Oikawa turns to another person standing nearby, Iwaizumi Hajime, and "persuades" him to see his modeling poses. Hinata uses the opportunity to slip away.

Hinata passes through the crowd, searching, and spots Oikawa through an archway striking poses for a crowd. He turns and spots Kenma playing his video game outside.He decides to avoid the inevitable conflict and pulls Kageyama in the opposite direction.

"It is just me, or does this party all of sudden suck?"

In another portion of the house, Kuroo is searching for Tsukishima. He passes by drunk Yaku and lucky Lev. Lev grabs his shirt again.

“No really, thank you.”

Kuroo gives Lev a pat on the shoulder and moves on. He spots Tsukishima easily from among the crowd. To be honest, it wasn’t really that hard to find him. Tsukishima was a good head taller than the rest of the party-goers so all Kuroo had to do was look for his head above the sea of drunk people. He weaves his way through the crowd and finds Tsukishima very drunk and standing with a fresh shot in his hand. He removes the shot glass and receives a very angry pout.

“How about I drink this one for you?”

Tsukishima pouts again and tries to take the shot back only to fail as Kuroo immediately downs the shot. He grimaces as to beverage runs down his throat leaving an unpleasant stinging sensation behind. Tsukishima, in the short time Kuroo downed his shot,  was already off in another room. He tries to follow but is distracted when Oikawa grabs him by the shoulder.

“Hey, how in world did you get him to do it?”

“Do what?”

“Act human, of course.”

They’re both distracted by the song change and notice Tsukishima climbing up on a table in the next room and starts dancing. Oikawa gives Kuroo a grin and walks over to watch. Others form a crowd, clapping and cheering as Tsukishima dances along with the funky beat of the hip pop music . Hinata sees him from the balcony and rushes off from second-hand embarrassment.

_Give it to me, I'm worth it_

_Baby, I'm worth it_

_Uh-huh, I'm worth it_

_Gimme gimme, I'm worth it_

_Give it to me, I'm worth it_

Kuroo makes his way to the table and watches with slight amusement as Tsukishima swayed his hips. The crowd cheered and whistled as Tsukishima removed his shirt revealing a thin white tank - that left nothing to imagination. Kuroo hadn't noticed his was chewing his lower lip as Tsukishima ran his long fingers through his blonde hair.

_Not a clue, I'll tell you what to do_

_Come harder just because_

_I don't like it, like it too soft_

_I like it a little rough_

_Not too much, but maybe just enough_

 Mesmerized, he watched as Tsukishima dropped to his knees -still swaying those hips that were going to be the death of Kuroo one day-. It wasn't helping that Tsukishima was looking at him the entire time he was dancing -yea, it _definitely_ wasn't helping-. He tried thinking of other things, volleyball formations, grilled salted mackerel pike, possible ways he could get rid of his annoying bedhead, remembering if he did his homework for his college prep class, etc...nothing worked.

_Uh-huh, you see me in the spot like_

_Ooh, I love your style_

_Uh-huh, show me what you got_

_Now come and make it worth my while_

_Give it to me, I'm worth it_

As Tsukishima got up to his feet, his hips did that curve thing - that move all those idol girl groups do to add that "sexy" quality to their dance numbers- and Kuroo swore he was going to drop dead right there. But when Tsukishima threw his head back he hit his head against the chandelier and starts falling forward off the table –thankfully Kuroo catches him. He grabs Tsukishima's shirt as he helps him outside.

“You okay?” Kuroo asks as he helps Tsukishima out to get him some fresh air.

“I’m fine.” He drunkenly slurs out. “I just need to lie down somewhere.”

“Oh no you’re not. You lie down and you’ll go straight to sleep.”

Tsukishima smiles at the thought and giggles. “Sleep is good.”

“Yeah well, not if you have a concussion.”

Kuroo safely guides Tsukishima outside and sits him down on a stone bench. He holds his face between his palms and tries looking for any signs that he’ll have to take Tsukishima to the doctor. He doesn’t notice Kenma walk up next to him.

“We need to talk.” Kenma mumbles.

“Not now, I’m a little busy.”

“Just for a minute.”

Kuroo takes once last look at Tsukishima before stepping aside to talk with Kenma.

“It's off.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Shouyou never wanted me in the first place. He wanted Oikawa.”

Kuroo rolls his eyes; he really didn’t have time for this. He was growing a little impatient.

“Kenma, do you like the guy?”

Kenma nods.

“And is he worth all this trouble?”

Kenma shrugs.

“Either he is or he isn’t. First of all, Oikawa is not half the man you are and second of all, don’t let anyone every make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want. If you want it, go for it.”

Kuroo takes a quick glance and does a double take as Tsukishima begins to fall off the bench. He rushes over to catch him and stands him up. Holding a secure arm around Tsukishima’s waist, he guides him away from the party.

Kuroo continues guiding an oblivious and still very drunk Tsukishima down the street and up a grassy hill. Tsukishima wiggles out of his hold, annoyed at being held up.

“You’re so patronizing.”

Kuroo chuckles. “Leave it to you to use big words when you’re wasted.”

Tsukishima pushes his arm off and tries to walk on his own only to falls down on the grassy surface and attempts crawl his way to stand back up again. Kuroo leans down and helps Tsukishima stand back up and continue walking.

“Why are you doing this?”

“I told you, you may have a concussion.”

“Ha! You don’t care if I never wake up.”

“Sure I do.”

Tsukishima give him a “yeah right” look and Kuroo grins. They reach a set of swings and stop.

“If I didn’t have you, then I’d have to start taking out people who actually like me.”

Tsukishima scoffs, “like you could find one.”

“See? Who needs affection when I have blind hatred?”

Kuroo helps Tsukishima walk over the swings and plops him down. Tsukishima moves his hands to hang on the ropes and seems to be temporarily off in thought. He looks up at Kuroo for a moment with a smile and then falls over backward – thankfully Kuroo is there just in time, again, to catch him. Kuroo mutters something under his breath and goes to sit on the other swing.

“Why’d you let him get to you?”

“Who?”

“Oikawa.”

“I hate him.”

“Well, clearly you’ve chosen the perfect revenge. Tequila shots.”

They both laugh –which was a first.

“Well, you know what they say…”

Kuroo looks over to find Tsukishima asleep, head resting against the swing rope.

“Shit!” Kuroo pivots towards Tsukishima on his swing and begins taping him on his cheek. “No, no, no, no! Tsukki! C’mon, wake up! C’mon Tsukki open your eyes!”

He taps a little harder and is relieved when Tsukishima slowly opens his eyes. He stares at Kuroo for a moment and cocks his head to the side.

“Hey…your eyes have a little green in them.”

Kuroo smiles –this time a genuine smile- and for a moment the atmosphere around them changes until Tsukishima throws his head down and vomits at his feet.

Mood gone.

Still at the house, the last of the students loiter outside. Hinata and Kageyama are waiting. They have been invited to another house party but Hinata really doesn’t want to go. Oikawa comes up to them.

“Ready to go?”

“Oh…uh, I have to be home in thirty minutes.”

Oikawa turns to look at Kageyama. He doesn’t want to go either, but thankfully he has an actual excuse.

“I promised Yamaguchi I’d help him with his serves.”

They’re interrupted briefly by a honk and turn to see a slightly-drunk Yamaguchi along with a couple other Karasuno players pull over. Kageyama gives Hinata a wave before getting into the car and driving off.

“Last call.”

“Wish I could but I can’t…damn.” Hinata tries to play off that he was really bumped about not going. Oikawa shrugs and leaves.

Kenma exits the party and stops when he sees Hinata standing alone.

“Where’s Kageyama?”

“Off practicing with the rest of the team.”

"What about you?"

"Serves and tosses aren't my forte."

“Had fun tonight?”.

“Tons.” Hinata responds unenthused.

Kenma nods and starts walking off.

“Kenma?”

He stops and turns to see Hinata giving him a helpless smile.

“Do you think you could drive me home?”

Kenma takes a deep breath and nods.

Elsewhere, Kuroo drives as Tsukishima sits in the passenger seat. They listen to radio station talk show where a world-renowned paleontologist is discussing his recent excavations and findings.

“I should do this.” Tsukishima say as he points to the car stereo.

“Do what? Dig up dino bones?”

“No, install car stereos.” Tsukishima responds with sarcasm. “Of course dig up dinosaur bones. Daichi-san would _love_ that.”

Kuroo pulls up to the Karasuno share house and stops the car. He turns to face Tsukishima with a puzzled look.

“You don’t look like the type that would ask your team captain for permission.”

“Oh, so now you think you know me?” Tsukishima side-eyes him and Kuroo grins.

“I’m getting there.”

“The only thing people know about me is that I’m ‘scary’ and –what was it Mr. Takeda said- ‘heinous snarky asshole’.”

Despite the wall Tsukishima tries to pull up, his voice was losing its venom.

“Yeah, well I’m no basket of roses myself.”

They stare at each other for a moment before Kuroo shuffles in his seat to avoid the rising tension.

“What’s up with your captain? Is he a pain in the ass?”

“No, most of time he’s a really good captain. He just wants me to be someone I’m not.”

“Who?”

“Hinata.”

“Ah, well no offense or anything, I know everyone digs your tiny teammate but he falls short.”

Tsukishima snorts at the pun before staring at Kuroo with new admiration.

“You’re not as vile as I thought you were.”

Tsukishima leans forward and Kuroo seems to follow suit. Their faces grow closer as if they’re about to kiss only for Kuroo to pull away. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to kiss Tsukishima – he did- but he didn’t want to do it this way.

“Maybe we should do this another time.”

Tsukishima glares at him, completely pissed and storms out of the car.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile in Kenma’s car, Hinata and him ride in silence. He pulls up to the front of the share house and finally finds the courage to break it.

“You never wanted to go eat apple pie with me, did you?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Please don’t lie Shouyou. You’re terrible at it.”

“Okay, no…not actually.”

“Well then that’s all you had to say.”

Hinata could tell Kenma was upset. He bit his lip as he tried thinking of what to say.

“Just because you’re beautiful doesn’t mean you can treat people like they don’t matter. I really like you, Shouyou. I helped you when you asked me to. I even learned Japanese for you! And then…and then you just blow me off.”

Kenma never like getting upset or yelling at people – he wasn’t good with people in the first place and therefore rarely interacted with them. He usually never gets excited about anything – with exception of Hinata and video games.

Hinata looks a Kenma for a moment and then grabs his face, giving him a kiss on the lips. Kenma’s mind goes blank and he's completely stunned. Hinata smiles and kisses him on the cheek before getting out of the car.

Kenma looks as though he had just won the hardest boss battle in his life as he watches Hinata turn to smile at him and wave before walking inside the house.

Kenma bits his lower lip in a sad attempt to stop himself from smiling.

“And I’m back in the game!”

Back at Bogie’s house, a very drunk Bokuto has taken it upon himself to recite the full William Shakespeare play of “Hamlet” to the remaining stragglers. Taking up a decoration skull, he recites Hamlet’s famous lines before being told to go home. Bokuto pouts and takes the skull with him as he continues to dramatically quoting the famous tragic play.


	6. Chapter 6

Tsukishima entered his English Class mentally groaning as students poked fun at him for his dancing at the party the night before.

“Tsukishima, me gentleman, you sway to the rhythm of me heart.” A white Rastafarian calls out.

“Dance for me, cowboy.” A cowboy chimes in as Tsukishima makes his way to his seat.

“Hey there Tsukki~<3” Oikawa purrs making Tsukishima recoil, “to what do we owe you for that sexy table dance?”

Mr. Ukai enters the class, clearly unaware of the events of last night’s party.

“Not that I actually care, but how was everybody’s weekend?”

“You should ask Tsukki.” Oikawa responds with a big smile on his face.

“Unless he kicked the crap outta your dumb butt, I don’t wanna hear about it. Now, open your books to page 394, sonnet 141.”

Mr. Ukai clears his throat before reciting Shakespeare’s sonnet.

> _In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes._
> 
> _For they and thee a thousands errors note_
> 
> _But ‘tis my heart loves what they despise_
> 
> _who in despite of view is pleased to dote;_
> 
> _Nor are mine ears with thy tongue’s tune delighted,_
> 
> _Nor tender feeling, to base touches prone,_
> 
> _Nor taste, nor smell, desire to be invited_
> 
> _to any sensual fest with thee alone:_

“I know Shakespeare is a dead white guy but he knows his stuff, so we’ll overlook it. For your assignment, I want you to write your own version of this sonnet.”

The class groans in disapproval. Tsukishima raises his hand and Mr. Ukai, though his back is turned to the class to write something on the board, rolls his eyes as he is obviously accustomed to Tsukishima’s opposition.

“Yes, Mr. I-have-an-opinion-about-everything?”

“Do you want the assignment in iambic pentameter?”

Mr. Ukai turns around, slightly surprised at Tsukishima’s approval of his assignment.

“You’re not gonna fight me on this?”

Tsukishima shakes his head. “No, I think it’s a good assignment.”

Mr. Ukai laughs as he thinks Tsukishima is mocking him.“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”

Tsukishima looks at him with confusion. “No, I’m looking forward to writing this.”

“Get out of my class.”

Tsukishima confusion grows but he leaves thinking better than to argue with the teacher (if he pushed Mr. Ukai too hard, he might make him run extra laps during practice which would've been annoying).

“Thanks Mr. Ukai.”

“Shut up, Oikawa.”

 

* * *

 

In the hallway, Akaashi is at his open locker. A portrait of William Shakespeare covers the entire back of his locker door. Akaashi doesn’t notice Bokuto walk up to him.

“Hey, hey, heeeeeeyyy~ Akaasshi, right?”

Akaashi takes a glance and returns to organizing his books inside his locker.

“Remember me? Jersey number 4? Ace wing spiker? Your teammate?”

When Akaashi continued to ignore him, Bokuto sighed with defeat. He glances up at the portrait of William Shakespeare and brightens at the thought of a good idea.

“I didn’t know you’re a fan of Shakespeare.”

“Not a fan, we’re involved.”

“Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart-”

Akaashi’s eyes widen slightly at Bokuto’s sudden recital of a line from Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth.

“courage to make love known?” Akaashi mumbles as he finishes the quote for him.

Akaashi looks at Bokuto feeling a little bit guilty for misjudging him.

“Macbeth, right?”

Akaashi nods and smiles. Bokuto steps a little bit closer.

“Sorry to bother you but I have this friend…”

Kenma walks up and sits next to Kuroo who is on the bleachers currently watching the Karasuno volleyball team practice on the outside court. Kenma takes a brief look at Tsukishima, who is clearly taking his frustration out on his block and serves. He pulls up his backpack and takes out his video game.

“What did you do?” Kenma asks as he flips the switch to turn on his game.

“I didn’t do anything. He would’ve been too drunk to remember.”

“But the plan was working.”

Kuroo leaned back against the bleachers and cocked his head to the side.

“I thought you wanted out?”

Kenma blushes a little bit and continues playing. “Yea, well I did, but that was until he kissed me.”

Kuroo gives his feline-grin, “where?”

“In the car.”

Bokuto jogs up to them from across the running track and jumps over a runner as he knelt down to tie his shoelaces. He sits next to Kuroo.

“So I talked to the friend, who by the way is very cute if you're into calm, composed, dark-haired beauties who have a small range of emotions.”

“And?” Kuroo asks.

“Hates him with the fire of a thousand suns…that’s a direct quote.”

“Thank owl-boy, that’s very comforting.”

“Well, maybe he just needs a day to cool off.”

A volleyball flies past them, just barely missing Kuroo’s head. Bokuto and Kuroo turn to look and see a menacingly glaring Tsukishima.

“okay…make that two.” Bokuto responds as he feels the thin hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

After practice, Tsukishima meets up with Akaashi and they walk through the main school courtyard. As they walk past the large bulletin board, Tsukishima tears down a prom flyer and keeps walking.

“Ugh, who would want to go to this antiquated mating ritual?”

“I would,” Akaashi comments, “but I don’t have a date.”

“Really?” Tsukishima cocks an eyebrow. “Do you really want to get all dressed up so some plebeian in an ill-fitted tacky three-piece suit with a boner can feel you up while you’re forced to listen to a band that by musical definition shouldn’t even be consider music?”

“Alright, alright,” Akaashi raises his hands in an appeasing gesture; “we won’t go. It’s not like I have anything to wear for it anyways.”

“I think you’re looking at this from an entirely different perspective. By not going, we’re making a statement.”

“Oh yea,” Akaashi responds with sarcasm –clearly not convinced-, “something new and different for us.”

Elsewhere, Hinata is in full concentration as he carefully notches his arrow and takes aim. Even though Hinata was a regular on a volleyball team, he still had to take a class of physical education since he was a first year. Oikawa swaggers up to Hinata as the coach instructs the students to shoot arrows aiming _only_ at the targets.

“Hey there Chibi-chan~<3” Oikawa whispers next to Hinata’s ear.

“Hi, Oikawa.” Hinata greets back still looking at the target.

“You’re concentrating pretty hard considering it’s only gym class.”

Hinata turns to look at him unknowing that he had released his arrow at an angle. The two don’t even notice a cry shouting out in the short distance. Hinata really wasn’t interested in taking with Oikawa.

“Can I help you?”

“I wanted to talk to you about prom.” Oikawa shrugged as he gave him his signature smile.

“You know the deal, I can’t go if Tsukishima doesn’t go.”

Behind them, the P.E. coach staggers to the ground with an arrow sticking out of one of his butt cheeks. The rest of the students scurry over to help their teacher.

“Tsukki’s going.”

Hinata looks at him, surprised.

“I haven’t heard of it. Since when?”

“Let’s just say I’m taking care of it.” He winks at Hinata before walking off of the field.

Later in the hallway, Oikawa hands two $100 bills to Kuroo.

“That should take care of the flowers, limo, tux, the whole shebang. All you have to do is make sure he gets to the prom.”

Kuroo holds the money his hand and thinks for a moment. His conscience seems to finally be back from vacation. He takes a deep breath and hands back the money.

“I’m getting sick of playing this little game.”

Oikawa tilts his chin up and pouts a little before pulling out his wallet and takes out another $100 bill.

“How about $300?”

Kuroo bites the inside of his cheek looking a bit tortured before eventually taking the money and stuffing it in his pocket.

After school, Kuroo surprisingly finds Tsukishima in a toy store. He watches as Tsukishima stares intently at the expensive looking dinosaur model figures displayed behind a glass case. He was originally going to go up and ask him to prom but decides to leave him alone.

For the first time, he saw a different side of Tsukishima. His face was completely relaxed –devoid of all the harsh glares and condescending smirks- he looked actually content.

Kuroo follows Tsukishima into a bookstore and keeps watch from between the books. When they reach the end of the aisle, he confronts him.

“Excuse me, have you seen ‘Jurassic Park’? I must have lost my copy.”

Tsukishima gives him a displeased look before rolling his eyes.

“What are you doing here?”

“I heard there was a mini-dino reading.”

“You’re so-”

“Charming? Sexy? Wholesome?”

“Unwelcome.”

Kuroo smiles as he leans against a bookshelf. “You know, you’re not as mean as you think you are.”

“And you’re not as badass as you think you are.”

Tsukishima turns and starts heading for the exit. He groans mentally as he hears Kuroo follow.

“Somebody clearly still has their panties in a twist.”

“Oh don’t think for one millisecond that you had any effect on my panties whatsoever.”

“Then what did I have an effect on?” Kuroo ask as he turns sharply cutting Tsukishima off.

“Other than my upchuck reflexes? Nothing.”

As Tsukishima heads for door, he shoves a copy of “Jurassic Park” in his chest.

The next day, Bokuto and Kenma scoot next to Kuroo as he piles food onto this tray in the lunch line.

“He’s still pissed.” Kuroo states as he grabs a couple apples.

“Sweet love, renew thy force! Be it not said-”

“Hey! I’d appreciate it if you don’t say that kind of sappy shit to me. People can hear you.”

Bokuto pouted as his Shakespeare recital came to an abrupt close.

“You embarrassed the guy. Sacrifice your dignity and even the score.” Kenma responded as he grabbed a small portion of apple pie and smiled to himself at the small treat.

Kuroo gives them a contemplating look before walking off with his tray of food.

Later, Kuroo hands a large wad of cash to a pudgy looking kid and smiles before giving him a high-five.


	7. Chapter 7

Tsukishima grumbles as he blocks another spike and lands on the grassy ground. He rolls his shoulders as Yamaguchi jogs up to him carrying a cool water bottle and a small yellow bottle of sunscreen.

“Why do we have to practice outside?”

Tsukishima takes the water bottle and drinks a generous amount before handing it back to Yamaguchi.

“That’s because we have three other volleyball teams and their coaches remember to makes reservations in advance. Sunscreen?”

Tsukishima nods and thanks Yamaguchi as he takes the bottle of sunscreen. He twists the cap and dispenses a good portion before applying to his exposed arms and neck. He dispenses another portion into his palm before handing the sunscreen back to Yamaguchi who also dispensing a small portion and applies it to his face.

The Karasuno volleyball team is unaware as a pair of hands scan over the controls of the school’s stadium audio control booth and pushes up the volume on the switch labelled “Field Mic Announcement”. A cordless microphone is turned on and the speakers surrounding the open field hum to life.

_You’re just too good to be true._

_Can’t take my eyes off you_

_You’d be like heaven to touch_

_I wanna hold you so much_

The volleyball players turn to the sudden singing. Looking down on the field, Kuroo stands on top of the bleachers with a microphone in hand. He slides down an unused flagpole and grins as Tsukishima stares at him in disbelief.

_As long last love has arrived_

_And I thank God I’m alive_

_You’re just too good to be true_

_Can’t take my eyes off you_

Kuroo grins wider and points to Tsukishima resulting in a couple cat-calls from his fellow teammates. As everyone watches, he gives a signal to the pudgy kid he met in the hall earlier. The kid, leader of the school’s marching band, blows his whistle and the band begins playing the accompaniment for the song.

“You have to be kidding me.” Tsukishima mumbles to himself. He could feel his face growing hot from embarrassment.

He tries to hide a smile as Kuroo dances down the bleachers. The dance moves are old, something you would clearly see in an old All-American musical (think Gene Kelly as he tap dances while singing in the rain).

_I love you baby,_

_and if it’s quite all right_

_I need you baby,_

_to warm the lonely nights_

_I love you baby,_

_trust me when I say._

The tall blonde middle blocker hides his face as embarrassment continues to rise. It wasn’t helping as the his teammates, specifically Nishinoya and Tanaka, were teasing him throughout Kuroo’s performance.

_Oh pretty baby, don’t bring me down I pray_

_Oh pretty baby, now that I’ve you stay_

_and let me love you, baby_

_Let me love you_

Kuroo’s performance is cut short as two police cops arrive. He winks at Tsukishima before jumping down and running around the bleachers trying to evade the two cops. He quickly dodges their attempts to apprehend him and jazzes about the bleachers before running off. Tsukishima is obviously flattered and tries to return to his original composure as Daichi calls for the team to return to their practice.

Later, Kuroo and several other miscreants sit quietly as Mr. Takeda walks down the aisles. It’s detention and most of the students are mulling over their misfortune of getting caught. Mr. Takeda takes another scan of the students before sitting down at the large desk set in front of the class and opens his laptop.

As he pulls up the word document of his latest chapter of the scandalous affair between his beloved characters of his homoerotic novel-in-process, Tsukishima enters the room. Kuroo perks up as Tsukishima makes his way to Mr. Takeda.

“Yes, Tsukishima?”

“Uh…well, I was in the library, working on my literature assignment and I thought of some ideas for your novel…well you’re next novel.”

“Let’s talk about that later. As you can see, I’m currently monitoring detention.” Mr. Takeda smiles before returning to his typing. Using the opportunity, Tsukishima motions to Kuroo to sneak out the window.

He doesn’t get it.

“Window!”

Mr. Takeda looks up from his screen and Tsukishima gives him a nervous laugh.

“You know, windows. Kinda cliché symbol but still effective. Maybe you could add a twist, like instead of looking in your character could be looking out.”

Tsukishima laughs nervously again and watches from his peripheral as Kuroo sneaks towards the window. As Mr. Takeda turns his head towards Kuroo’s direction, Tsukishima gets flustered for a moment trying to think of something to distract him.

“Foreplay!”

“Excuse me?”

The classroom giggles and Tsukishima’s face grows a little pink.

“You know foreplay is very important when writing smut. Especially when it’s the first time; I mean, preparation is key, right? But then again, Kenshin and Ittetsu are probably desperate to bang each other so I guess patience and preparation is out of the question.”

Mr. Takeda hears Kuroo make a creaking noise as he tries to sneak out of the window. Tsukishima stops him just in time as he tries to turn towards the sound.

“The point it, if you want a sense of realism I think you need to add some description of pain and soreness after they have their sexy time. Also, I think it would be important to add some appropriate alternatives if you’re not going to use lube.”

Tsukishima starts to panic as Kuroo is halfway out the window. His face is bright red and the giggles from the other students weren’t helping. Mr. Takeda’s face was also growing red from the subject matter.

“So…uh…yes, alternatives to lube. You know, I think as a reader of –um- homoerotic novels, I think one thing that bothers me the most is inappropriate and sometimes unsanitary alternatives to lube. You know like butter or candle wax or vegetable oils. Like I understand in the heat of the moment, the guy who’s putting their dick in doesn’t really care but afterwards, I mean, it’s kinda gross. Like, who wants butter all over their dick?”

As Kuroo makes it out of the window undetected, Tsukishima feels a wave of relief. Realizing what he was talking about, Tsukishima laughs and smiles nervously.

“Okay…well…um, now that I’ve discussed my thoughts on what I think is problematic of homoerotic novels, I’m gonna go…and…uh….tell someone else. Enjoy your writing.”

Tsukishima beeline out of the classroom and tries to ignore the students who were laughing at him. As he exits the building, he spots Kuroo leaning against the wall, grinning as usual, and punches him lightly. They laugh and walk in unison as they exit the school grounds. They continue laughing as they get into Tsukishima car and drive off.

“I can’t believe you helped me sneak out of detention. I thought for sure I was busted when I was climbing out of the window. How did you keep him distracted?”

“I listed off inappropriate and unsanitary alternatives to lube.”

Kuroo throws his head back and laughs.

“So, what your excuse?”

“For what?”

“Acting the way you do?”

“I don’t like doing what people expect. Why should I live up to other people’s expectations instead of my own?”

“So you just disappoint them from the start?”

“Pretty much.”

“Well then you screwed up, big time.”

“How?”

“You never disappointed me.”

Kuroo spots a billboard of paint ball and points. Tsukishima sees the sign and cocks a questioning brow. Kuroo grins.

“You up for it?”

“Why would I want to get paint on me?”

“Oh, I see. You’re just scared to lose.”

Tsukishima scowls and turns on his turn signal and heads towards the paint ball arena. He parks the car in the parking lot and both head towards the entrance. After being instructed to get into white jumpsuits, the two are handed a sack filled with paint balls and given the basic instructions.

As soon as they entered the arena, Tsukishima gasps as Kuroo smashes a paint ball on the top of his head getting brilliant red in his hair. They chase each other around, throwing balls of paint and having a good time. Tsukishima cheers to himself as he hits Kuroo, getting bright yellow on his jumpsuit and hair.

Their once white jumpsuits are now reminiscent of a Jackson Pollock painting; a large splash of brilliant colors of red, green, blue, yellow, purple, and pink. Tsukishima ducks under one of the shields and smiles as the paint ball misses him. He slowly peaks over, paint ball in hand, as smiles as he meet the paint-covered face of Kuroo, who is also smiling. He smashes the paint ball on Kuroo’s head and laughs as the pink paint drips down his hair, deflating his spikes.

His laughing is short-lived as he feels Kuroo return the gesture. He squeals as Kuroo smears the green paint into his hair and tries to get away. Tsukishima grabs a couple paint balls and smashes them on Kuroo’s chest causing the paint to spatter and hit him in the face. Kuroo grins and reciprocates. He grabs a paint ball and smashes it against Tsukishima neck causing him to yelp as the cold substance drips down his back.

They continue to chase each other and throw paint balls through the arena. Realizing he only had one paint ball left, Tsukishima throws his hands up signalling his surrender.

“You all out?”

Tsukishima nods and tries hard to hide his smile.

“I’m all out too.”

As Kuroo walks up, Tsukishima drops his hands behind his back and fiddles through his bag to grab the last paint ball. He grins as Kuroo wraps his arms around his waist and smashes the paint ball behind his neck. Tsukishima laughs as Kuroo jumps as the cold purple paint runs down his back.

“You cheat!”

Tsukishima sticks out his tongue as he wiggles out of Kuroo’s arms and runs away. Running to a different part of the arena, Tsukishima weaves through the labyrinth of hay stacks. He checks over his shoulder and stops running when he doesn’t see Kuroo behind him. He flinches as a cool paint smashes against the top of his head followed by a large hand. He turns and pouts at a grinning Kuroo.

“Cheater.” He mumbles.

“You cheated first.”

Kuroo grabs Tsukishima’s arm as he purposely falls backward and lands on a pile of hay. Wrapping an arm around Tsukishima’s waist, Kuroo looks up at the paint-covered blonde and smiles.

“Ever think of dying your hair red and green?”

They laugh and roll around in the hay caught in an embrace. Tsukishima snorts as Kuroo peppers his face with light kisses and tries shoving his face away with his paint-covered hands. Before Tsukishima could even properly react, their lips connected. It was a brief kiss but a full kiss; with tongue and teeth –the whole deal. Tsukishima pulled back with a grimace and for a moment Kuroo worried he went too fast.

“I think I just ate paint.”

Kuroo snorts and starts laughing. He helped Tsukishima up and tries brushing off the hay that got stuck in his hair. They returned the jumpsuits and drive back to the Karasuno share house (this time Kuroo is the one driving). As Kuroo parks the car, they get out and head up the stairs to the front door; paint still in their hair.

“No,” Kuroo laughed, “none of that is true.”

“State trooper?”

“Not true. Dead guy in the parking lot?”

“Rumor. Eating a whole duck?”

“Hearsay. Keisuke Matsuda’s balls?”

“Fact. But he deserved it. He’d been bully Yamaguchi for weeks.”

“Fair enough.”

“The hair?”

“Bedhead. Tried fixing it but nothing has worked.” Kuroo shrugged.

“Where were you last year? I know the porn career is a lie.”

“Do you now?” Kuroo grinned. They pause for a moment before bursting out into laughter.

“Tell me something true.” Tsukishima asks as they sit on the front steps of the share house.

“Something true? I like fish; specifically grilled salted mackerel pike.”

“Come on, something real. Something no one else knows.”

“Okay.” Kuroo scoots closer and places a small kiss on Tsukishima’s neck. “I think you’re sweet,” kiss, “and sexy,” kiss, “and completely smitten for me.”

“I think you need to re-evaluate your level of self-assurance there Lord Byron.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being self-assured.”

Kuroo leans forward and kisses Tsukishima on the lips.

“Go to the prom with me.”

Tsukishima leans back and cocks a brow.

“Is that a command or a request?”

“C’mon, go with me to the prom.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t want to. It’s a stupid tradition.”

“People won’t expect you to go.”

“Why are you pushing this?” Tsukishima starts getting angry and crosses his arm in defense. “What’s in it for you?”

Kuroo scoffs as he plays the role of guiltily accused husband and answered with an accusatory question of his own.

“Oh, so now I need a motive to want to take you to the prom?”

“You tell me.”

“You know what, you need therapy. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Tsukishima eyes his suspiciously. He doesn’t show him that he’s a little hurt by his therapy comment.

“Answer the question Tetsurou.”

“Nothing,” Kuroo snaps angrily, “Ok? There’s nothing in it for me other than the pleasure of your company.”

Out of habit, Kuroo fumbles in his pockets and takes out a cigarette.

“Unbelievable.” Tsukishima comments as he snatches the cigarette from Kuroo’s mouth and throws it away before he storms off and slams the door.


	8. Chapter 8

Bokuto looked oddly out of place while walking through the aisles of the library clearly in search of someone. His head bobbed up and down, right to left, almost mimicking the movements of a owl as he searched over and under the stacks upon stack of books. His eyes would light up whenever they’d spot a tuff of curly black hair but would depress when the owner wasn’t the person he was searching for. Getting frustrated, he climbed up on to one of the bookshelves and scanned the library in search of his setter.

“AKAASHI!!!!”

Akaashi jolted at the sudden outburst of noise. He turned from his reading and watched as Bokuto jumped down from the bookshelf and jogged up to him. Anyone could see that he was very annoyed.

“You do realize we’re in a library.”

“You weren’t at practice. You know it’s really hard to set for yourself…come to think of it, no one was as practice except for me.”

“That’s because we don’t have practice today.” Akasshi sighed as he closed his book and headed for the check-out counter.

“WHAAAATTT?!? NO PRACTICE?!?”

Bokuto laughed nervously as he was shushed by numerous library-goers. He trotted after Akaashi.

“Why was there no practice?” Bokuto whispered as he leaned over Akaashi’s shoulder and watched as the setter checked-out his books.

“They have to decorate the gym for the prom.”

“Oh right…prom…wanna go with me?”

“HHAAA?!?!?!”

This time it was Akaashi’s turn to be shushed. Feeling the heat rise to his cheeks from embarrassment, he quickly returned to finish his task.

“So, you wanna go with me?”

“Don’t you have anybody else you could ask?”

“But I wanna go with you?”

“Why?”

Akaashi quickly packed his books and headed for the exit. He didn’t mind Bokuto, but having to interact with all that excitement outside of practice was exhausting. He didn’t understand why Bokuto continued to follow him everywhere- and he meant _everywhere_. It seemed that no matter where he went, Bokuto would always follow him (if not find him).

“’Cause I wanna go with you.”

Akaashi stopped and turned, cocking a questioning brow.

“What would we do? We have nothing in common.”

“Sure we do, we could talk about volleyball.”

“No.”

Bokuto pouted as he thought of other activities they could possibly do.

“We could dance.”

“I don’t dance.”

“I could teach you.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Akaashi.” Bokuto whined.

As Akaashi turned to continue walking down the hallway, he was stopped by a pouting Bokuto.

“Please.”

Akaashi couldn’t tell if Bokuto was attempting to do puppy-dog-eyes. It just made him look more like an owl, if he was completely honest it was slightly unsettling how Bokuto looked and acted like those nocturnal birds of prey.

“Alright.” Akaahi sighed in defeat.

“Really?”

Akaashi swore the tips of Bokuto’s hair perked like a pair of dog ears.

“Yea, I’ll go with you.”

“YAHOO!!! HEY HEY HEEEEYYYY!!!”

Akaashi dropped his shoulders as he walked down the hallway with an overly excited Bokuto who hopped behind him. He prayed that Tsukishima would go to the prom – though it was very unlikely.

Back at the library, Kenma and Hinata sit together at a table. While Kenma was busy scanning over an opened Japanese textbook, Hinata stared at him.

“(speaking in Japanese) May I offer you some tea?” Kenma asked as he repeated the model conversation in the textbook.

“(in Japanese) No, thank you.”

“(in Japanese) Have you seen my pencil?”

Hinata smiled, “(in Japanese) I don’t know. Maybe it’s up your ass.”

Kenma confused at Hinata’s answer, flipped through the pages. Maybe he was on the wrong page. He looked up and smiled nervously to Hinata before flipping desperately through the pages of the textbook trying to find the conversation.

Hinata pouts as he closes his book.

“(in Japanese) Let me ask you a question, Kenma. When are you going to ask me out?”

Hinata shoves his textbook back into his backpack and storms out of the library. Kenma stares in confusion. He flips through the textbook for an explanation as he tried remembering what Hinata said.

“Oh shit.” He mumbled to himself as he realized what Hinata had said. Rubbing the back of his neck, he mentally scolded himself for not finishing that dating simulation game.

At the Karasuno share house, Daichi is doing crunches on an abdominal machine. Judging by that state of his shirt, which was almost soaking from sweat, Daichi had been doing crunches for a while. He stops and catches his breath. Seeing Suga enter with a cool drink and book in hand, he stands up and grabs a sports towel to wipe the sweat off his face. As Suga hands him the cool beverage, Hinata walks in slightly nervous.

“Daichi-san, I wanna talk about tomorrow night. As you know, it’s the prom.”

Hinata and Suga flinch as Daichi unknowingly breaks the glass in his palm.

“Prom? What prom?”

“The prom? The dance were everybody dresses up really fancy?”

“Does Tsukishima have a date?”

Suga quietly takes the sports towel and checks Daichi’s hand for many major injury as the two continue with their conversation.

“Well, no but-”

“Don’t think you’re fooling me for one second. I know you want to bend the rules for that hot rod, Oikawa.”

“You think Oikawa is a hot rod?...what’s a hot rod anyways?”

“It’s a…” Daichi glances down and gulps as he meets a glaring Suga. “If Tsukishima isn’t going, then you’re not going. That’s the deal.”

“But Tsukishima isn’t interested in going and I’m dying to go, Daichi-san.”

“Do you know what happens to prom?”

Suga sighs and fights the temptation to roll his eyes as he somehow miraculously obtained band-aids for the small cuts in Daichi’s hand.

“Yes, Daichi-san. We’ll dance, maybe even kiss and then come home. It’s not the apocalyptic situation you’ve imagined.”

“Oh kissing, huh? That’s what you think happens? Kissing isn’t what keeps me up till past my part-time hours writing prescriptions for sexually-transmitted-diseases-and-infections every day.”

“You’re forgetting Mono.” Suga chimed in as he continued putting band-aids over the small cuts.

“Mono is the exception, Suga.”

“Can’t we just ignore that you’re currently severely unhinged and discuss my need for a night of teenage normalcy?”

“What’s normal? Those damn Gossip Girl kids sleeping with each other and sometimes engaging in inappropriate – not to mention illegal- relationships with adults?”

“Daichi-san, Gossip Girl really isn’t a-”

“I got news for you, Hinata. I’m down. I’ve got the 411 and you’re not going out and getting jiggy with some Danny Zuko/James Dean-Rebel-Without-A-Cause boy. I don’t care how dope his ride is.”

“Daichi-san, that’s so unfair.” Hinata groans and storms out.

Daichi winces as Suga slaps his injured hand.

“What?”

Suga cocks a brow before rolling his eyes and leaves to grab a broom to sweep up the broken glass.

“Mama didn’t raise no fool.”

Inside Hinata’s and Tsukishima’s shared room, Hinata lies on his bed flipping through the channels until he stops on the National Volleyball Tournament. Tsukishima knocks before walking in and setting his things down. He sits on his bed, contemplating on whether not he wants to attempt striking a conversation with the small middle blocker.

“Hey.”

Hinata grunts. Tsukishima walks up, grabs the remote and turns off the television to get his attention.

“Listen, I know you hate having to sit at home because I’m not some-”

“Like you even care.” Hinata scoffs.

“I do care. I firmly believe that you should do something for your own reasons and not for someone else’s.”

“Well, I wish I had that kind of luxury. I’m probably the only one that got asked to the prom but can’t go because you don’t feel like it.”

“Oikawa never told you we went out, did he?” Tsukishima crosses his arm as he cocks his hip to the side.

“Yeah, okay.” Hinata snorts as he clearly doesn’t believe him.

“We did, for a month.”

Hinata looks a Tsukishima and he sits up looking confused once he realized that he wasn't joking.

“Why?”

“Because he was such a babe.” Tsukishima answered in a mocking tone.

“But you hate Oikawa.”

“I do now.”

“So what happened?”

Tsukishima nudges his head to side and raises his eyebrows hinting that they went all the way. Hinata’s eyes widen in disbelief.

“No way.”

Tsukishima nodded.

“You’ve got to be joking.”

“Just once, right after we lost to them in the Interhigh-Preliminaries. Everyone was doing it, so…I did it. Afterwards, I said I didn’t want to anymore because I wasn’t ready. He got pissed and dumped me.”

Hinata stared at him completely dumbfounded, mouth hung open.

“After that, I swore I’d never do anything just because everybody else was doing it…with exception of Bogey’s party and my stunning digestive pyrotechnics.”

Hinata blinked a couple times trying to process all the information.

“How is it possible that I didn’t know about this?”

“Since when do you care about my personal life?”

“…true.”

“Plus, I warned him that if he told anyone, his fangirls would find out about his preference on being the bottom.”

“Oh ew, don't tell me that." Hinata recoiled as he unwantingly imagined Tsukishima and Oikawa doing the do. "…so why didn’t you tell me?”

“I wanted to let you make up your own mind about him. Plus, we were never close to begin with.”

“Then why did you help Daichi-san. It’s not like I’m stupid enough to repeat your mistakes.”

“You sure about that?” Tsukishima cocks a brow. “You barely passed your midterms even after you begged me to help you study for them. Besides, not all experiences are good. Not everyone deserves your trust.”

“Well I guess I’ll never know, will I?”

Hinata storms out of their room. Tsukishima massages his forehead as he lies down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He rolls over and looks out the window to find a pitiful Hinata tossing a volleyball up into the air. He pulls out his phone and flicks through his small list of saved numbers. His thumb pauses over Kuroo’s name for a brief moment before tapping it. Bringing the phone to his ear, he listens as the phone ringing.

* * *

 

Daichi is sitting on the couch, transfixed by the current National Volleyball Tournament. It’s the semi-final game and he leans over groping Suga's thigh before finding the bowl that was nestled between his legs. He smiles as his fingers feel the buttered popcorn and grabs a handful. Eyes fixed on the screen.

Tsukishima descends down the stairs in an elegant, well-fitted three-piece suit. The double windsor maroon tie stood out boldly against the spread collar white shirt along with dark blue-green plaid patterned suit topped with a maroon colored pocket square neatly folded.

“Bye, Daichi-san. I’m going to the prom.” Tsukishima calls out as he opens the door to head out.

“Ha ha ha, funny Tsukishima.” Daichi replies without looking up from the screen as he thinks Tsukishima is joking.

Suga, who was also watching from the couch looks up and waves.

“Have fun, Tsukishima.”

Tsukishima shuts the door behind him.

“Tsukishima looked very nice in that three-piece suit.” Suga commented as he grabbed a handful of popcorn for himself.

Hinata walks into the living room. His suit isn’t as nearly dapper or refined as Tsukishima’s. It’s a simple pale pink suit. Instead of a pocket square, a simple white rose coupled with forget-me-nots were neatly tucked in its place. Daichi does a double-take and within seconds crosses to where he stands.

“What’s that?”

“It’s my suit for the prom.” Hinata does a quick check of suit. “Is it not formal enough?”

“You look adorable Hinata.” Suga called out from the couch before stuffing his face with popcorn.

The doorbell rings and Hinata opens it revealing a very nervous Kenma in a simple tux. It’s a soft black paired with a red tie, neatly fastened in a simple standard knot. Out of nervous habit, Kenma pulls on his bangs as he takes in Hinata’s appearance.

“Hi.” Hinata greets.

Kenma’s eyes swim for a moment before having the courage to look at Hinata. A faint blush creeps on his cheeks.

“Hi...you look great.”

Hinata turns to Daichi who is clearly confused.

“Bye, Daichi-san. I’ll be back at eleven.”

“Stop.” Hinata stops. “Turn.” Hinata turns to face Daichi. “Explain.”

“Okay, Remember how you said I couldn’t date unless Tsukki dated? Well, he found this guy who’s actually –surprisingly- perfect for him. Which is actually kinda perfect for me, ‘cause Kenma asked me to go to the prom, and I really really really _really_ wanna go. And since Tsukki is going, that means I can go based on the rule and its stipulations that we previously established.”

Kenma extends a hand to Daichi. “Nice to meet you.”

Hinata quickly intercepts and grabs Kenma’s hand before dashing out of the house. Suga waves from the couch and chuckles as Daichi shuffles to the doorway.

“I know every cop in town!” Daichi shouts after them. He takes one last look before walking back and taking a seat on the couch. He looks at Suga who is smiling and handing him the popcorn bowl, which he accepts.

“This isn’t good.” He mumbles before grabbing a handful of popcorn and stuffing it in his mouth.

* * *

 

To Tsukishima’s surprise, the gym was decorated very well and the band that was currently playing didn’t exactly suck by definition. While he was busy taking in all the sights, Kuroo spots him and comes up from behind.

“Wow.”

Tsukishima looks and does a quick survey of Kuroo’s attire. It was anything if not bold. The bright red tux paired with a dark emerald green shirt and yellow tie would catch anyone’s eyes. If Tsukishima wasn’t the center of attention now, he was sure going to be.

“You too.” Tsukishima responded trying to sound as nice as possible.

Kuroo hands him a single red rose and Tsukishima smiles as he receives it.

“Where’d you get the tux?” Tsukishima asks as they start descending down the stairs.

“Oh, you know, just something I had lying around. What about you? Where’d you get such a fancy suit?”

“Oh, you know, just something I had lying around.”

Kuroo smiles.

“Listen, I’m sorry that I questioned your motives.”

Kuroo does an overly dramatic gasp. “The snarky Tsukishima is apologizing? What have I done to deserve such a gift?”

Tsukishima pushes him lightly.

“I’m trying to actually apologize. If you’re going act like an ass, then you can go to prom alone.”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” Kuroo laughs as he throws in hand up showing his defeat.

“Ready for prom?” Tsukishima nudges his head to the side in the direction of the music and other prom-goers.

Kuroo nods and grabs Tsukishima’s hand as he leads him down the rest of the stairway.

* * *

 

Oikawa arrives in a fancy pale blue tux and knocks on the Karasuno share house door. He straightens his tuxedo jacket and smooths his hair as Daichi opens the door.

“Hello, Daichi. I’m here to pick up Hinata.”

Daichi gives him an icy glare in silence as a smiling Suga slams the door in his face.


	9. Chapter 9

The prom scene is full of life. Students dressed in fancy tuxedos and gowns crowd in the middle of the dance floor dancing to the lively music. Tsukishima and Kuroo weave through the dancing sea of students chuckling to themselves at some of the outrageous dancing. As Tsukishima looks around, he spots Hinata and Kenma dancing cheek to cheek and can’t help but smile at how ridiculous they looked. Hinata was obviously leading and Kenma seemed too flustered and worried about stepping on Hinata’s feet to look up from the floor.

Despite the theme being 1950s: Rock n' Roll is Here to Stay, no one really dressed for it aside from that one couple who seemed to have gone all out. Even the music seemed to flip-flop from classic 50s music to present day hip-hop and the occasional rap with their questionable lyrics.

Across the dance floor, a wild Bokuto dances in his white three-piece suit next to a simple but chic dressed standing Akaashi. Bokuto grabs Akaashi’s hand and tries getting to make some movement.

“Come on, Akaashi. Move your hips. Feeeeeeel the music.”

Akaashi, still unamused, bounces in place in time with the beat.

“You can do better than that.”

Bokuto swerves behind Akaashi, placing both hands on his hips and tries to guide them. A million things run through Akaashi’s mind as heat rises to his face. It wasn’t helping that he could feel Bokuto’s breath on his nape. It also wasn’t helping that the song that was currently playing was singing about windows, walls, and sweating dripping down balls.

As Akaashi glances around the dance floor, he was surprised at the number of couples grinding against each other. He thought he might puke from the sight of some couples really – and he meant _really_ \- get into it. He was counting the minutes until this dreaded song would end.

“You wanna try that?” Bokuto asked as he rested his head in the crook of Akaashi’s neck.

“Hell no.”

“You sure? It’s kinda fun, though I personally don’t enjoy sporting a hard-on the rest of the night.”

“Ew,” Akaashi craned his neck to look at his date. “Somehow, I’m not surprised.”

Bokuto chuckled.

“Well, if you ever feel like learning.”

“What’s there to learn? You just hump against each other.”

“But can you do it while keep it in time with music?” Bokuto asked as he wiggled his brows in a challenging way.

“Fine, request a song and when it comes on I’ll prove how easy it is.”

“Oh ho ho~ you’re on.”

Bokuto dashes to the DJ and Akaashi immediately regrets accepting the challenge. The song fades out and the crowd cheers as a steady beat hums through the speakers as the new song fades in.

Bokuto weaves through the crowd with a wide grin on his face. He holds out a hand and waits for Akaashi to take it. As the beat picks up, prom-goers clap along while others shouted the lyrics. Akaashi raising a condescending brow as he listens to the lyrics.

“So, I’m going to grind up against your crotch to a song about money and strippers?” 

“You should be thanking me, it’s an easy song.”

Akaashi would rather thank the prom committee for the lighting because he was sure that he was deep red from embarrassment. Akaashi scanned his surroundings for a tall blonde. If Tsukishima saw him doing this, he’d never let him live it down. Seeing that the close was clear, Akaashi huffed in defeat and turned before grabbing Bokuto’s hands and placing them on his hips.

“Let’s get this over with.”

He jolted slightly as he felt Bokuto pull him back so that his butt really was up against his crotch. He swallowed hard and tried moving his hips along with the beat without Bokuto’s help.

“You’re off beat.” Bokuto says in his ear as he pulls Akaashi closer. “I thought you were going to prove how easy this is?”

“Shut up, I’m working on it.”

Hinata sighs with relief as he spots an empty stall in the decorated bathroom. For a moment, Hinata thought it was the wrong bathroom - until he saw the line of standing urinals. The bathroom looked like something from the 1950s diner with all its checkered floor, bright neon lights, and pin-up wall art. His stomach churned reminding why he was in the bathroom in the first place and rushed into the vacant stall.

As he finished his business, Hinata jolted as he heard the door burst open. A lively group of students entered laughing to themselves.

“Who would’ve thought Oikawa would come stag.”

“I thought he came with his team member, the one with the spikey hair and the scary face?”

“As friends. Still counts as going stag.”

The group laughed among themselves. Hinata knew he shouldn’t eavesdrop but walking out seemed to be more awkward.

“Wasn’t he going out with that orange haired shorty?”

“Nah, I heard he was doing it on a bet with his friends.”

“What add another virgin card to his collection?”

“Pretty much.”

Hinata could feel his nails digging into his knees. He waited until the group left before emerging out of the bathroom stall. He washed his hands and straightens his tie before leaving the bathroom. He didn’t know whether he was disgusted or just plain angry.

As he spotted Kenma and made his way over, Hinata spotted Oikawa. They locked eyes briefly but before Oikawa could even lift a foot, Hinata grabbed Kenma’s hand and led him onto the dance floor. The song that was playing definitely was a mood changer and Hinata mentally thanked whoever requested it. It not every day you hear a song from the late 1950s playing after a recent top chart rap song.

_What’s that playing on the radio_

_Why do I start swaying to and fro_

_I have never heard that song before_

_But if I don’t it anymore_

“You alright?” Kenma silently prayed that Hinata wouldn’t notice how sweaty his hands were getting.

“Yea, I’ll be alright.”

Hinata lean forward and rested his head against Kenma's shoulder as they dance slowly with the music. He felt terrible for not listening to Tsukishima's warning.

_Those magic changes_

_My heart arranges_

_A melody, that’s never the same_

_A melody, that’s calling you name_

“Tokyo.” Kuroo says as he takes the lead and does a turn.

“What?”

Kuroo pushed his hand that rested on the curve of Tsukishima’s back pushing the tall blonde close as they swayed to the music.

“That’s where I was last year. I wasn’t in jail. I don’t know Marilyn Manson and I’m pretty sure I haven’t slept with a Spice Girl.”

_Please, return to me_

_Don’t go away again, oh make them play again_

_The music I wanna hear is once again_

_you whisper in my ear, oh my darling_

“My grandfather was ill, so I spent the most of the year on his couch watching a rerun of this historical drama while eating pre-made lunches from grocery stores.”

Tsukishima throws his head back and laughs. He’s surprised when a strong pull on his shoulder jerks him away. He stumbles back and immediately glares as a very pissed Oikawa breaks them up. Before he could ever open his mouth, Oikawa turns to Kuroo and presses a finger at his chest.

“Hey, mind explaining to me why Hinata is here with that shut-in dick? I didn’t pay you to take out Tsukishima so that some little nobody could snake me with Hinata.”

Tsukishima hears everything and not even Kuroo’s pleading face can keep him from making a hard scowl.

“Nothing in it for you, huh?”

Tsukishima turns on his heels and leaves. Kuroo shoots a glare at Oikawa before running after Tsukishima.

Across the dance floor, Bokuto sees the altercation between Kuroo and Oikawa and dances Akaashi over to Hinata and Kenma. He leans over to Kenma.

“The shit has hit the fan.”

Kenma looks over to Oikawa and immediately gulps as he it meet with a death glare. They leave Akaashi and Hinata and head over to Oikawa. Bokuto walks up first and tries to humor him in an attempt to cool down the clearly pissed off setting.

“Look, Okiawa. Listen-”

Oikawa rolls his eyes and punches Bokuto hard causing him to stumble to the floor. A crowd of spectators immediately form a small circle as Kenma passes Oikawa and helps Bokuto up.

“You okay?” Kenma asks.

“I’ll be fine.” Bokuto mumbles as he rubs the side of his face.

“You think you can con _me_? Do you even _know_ who I am?”

Kenma swallows hard and turns to face Oikawa.

“Look, I asked Hinata to the prom and he said yes. It’s your fault for not asking him first.”

Kenma is relieved when it appears that Oikawa is leaving before he feels the wind getting knocked out him as Oikawa turns and lands a punch in his face, knocking him to the ground.

“Get up. I didn’t punch you that hard.”

Feeling a light tap on his shoulder, Oikawa turns around and catches a punch in the nose from a very livid Hinata.

“Shit, Hinata! I have a fashion shoot tomorrow!”

“That’s for making my date bleed.”

Hinata lands another punch in his nose.

“That’s for Tsukishima.”

He grabs his shoulders and knees Oikawa in the crotch hard.

“And that’s for me.”

Hinata pushes Oikawa to the ground and immediately goes to help Kenma off the floor.

“You okay?” Hinata asks as he lightly touches where Kenma was punched. Kenma winces a little but smiles. “Do you want some ice for that?”

“No, I’ll be fine.”

Hinata kisses him lightly on his injured cheek before beginning to dance again. The spectators also start slow dancing again as Oikawa groans on the floor holding his crotch. A clearly annoyed Iwaizumi rolls his eyes before grabbing Oikawa by the arm and hauling him up off the floor. He leans down and lets gravity do its work before grabbing the back of Oikawa’s knees and begin to piggyback him to the exit.

“You owe my big time, Trashykawa.”

“Why are you so mean to me, Iwa-chan. I just go kneed in the crotch.” Oikawa whined.

“Well that wouldn’t have happened if you weren’t acting like a total ass.”

Elsewhere, Tsukishima heads for the stairs and is caught by Kuroo as they reach the top.

“Would you give me a chance to expl-”

“You were _paid_ to take me out?!? By the one person I truly hate?!?”

“Tsukki, it wasn’t-”

“I knew this was a set-up! God, I feel so stupid!”

“It wasn’t like that, okay!”

Tsukishima turns and crosses his arm. He is clearly livid but waits so see what fraudulent excuse Kuroo could make.

“Really? What was it like? A down payment now and then an added bonus if you could get me to sleep with you?

“I didn’t care about the money, okay? I mean, I did at first but once I started getting to know you-”

“You what? Started to care for me? Do you really think some cliché line from some sappy romance film is going to work on me?”

Tsukishima didn’t whether he was sad or angry or a combination of the two. He bites the inside of his cheek to keep himself from screaming at him. Looking back, he mentally scolded himself for not realizing what was happening.

“You’re definitely not who I thought you were.”

In desperation, Kuroo grabs Tsukishima and kisses him hard on the mouth. Tsukishima immediately jerks away and slaps him -hard- before walking down the stairs and exits the prom. Hinata comes running up the stairs to find a lonely Kuroo. He sees enough to know what happens and feels guilty for dragging Tsukishima to the prom and into the mess.


	10. Chapter 10

Prom was over. The weekend had passed and Tsukishima busied himself with a new book as he sits on the balcony railing of the Karasuno share house. He doesn’t notice Hinata coming out with a fresh brewed cup of tea. He walks up and offers it to Tsukishima.

“You want? It’s your favorite, strawberry infused black tea with honey and milk.”

Tsukishima gives a small smile as he takes the cup.

“Thanks.”

“You sure you don’t want to practice with us? It’ll be fun. Kenma's bringing the newest regular on their team. He says he really tall; maybe even taller than you.”

“No, I’m fine. Thanks.”

“I don’t know if I ever thanked you for going to prom, but it really meant a lot to me.”

“I’m glad.”

Kenma walks up to the steps to the balcony and looks up from his video game. He smiles at Hinata before shutting down and putting away his game.

“Hi.” Kenma greet quietly.

“Hi.”

“You ready?”

Hinata smiles and nods.

“See you later Tsukishima.”

“Bye.” Tsukishima waves though his face hasn’t left the pages of the books.

Hearing the engine of a car turn on, Tsukishima glances up briefly to watch as the vehicle drives off before returning to his book. Taking a sip from his tea, he turns the page. He notices Daichi walk out on to the balcony.

“Where’s Hinata going?”

“He’s meeting some college volleyball players.” Tsukishima replies with his usual sarcasm. “Big guys all beefed up with muscles. Full of sperm.”

“Funny.” Daichi replies, not amused. He takes a seat next to Tsukishima and nods to himself. “So, how was prom? Was it…hoppin’?”

Tsukishima smirks to himself as Daichi’s attempt to use young slang –which is clearly outdated.

“Part of it.” Tsukishima replies as he turns a page.

“Which part?”

“The part where Hinata beat the hell out of Oikawa.”

“Hinata did what?!?”

“What’s the matter, Daichi-san? Upset that Hinata doesn’t need your protection anymore?”

“No…impressed.”

Tsukishima looks up from his book, surprised at Daichi’s approval. He closes the book and sets it aside.

“You know, even captains don’t like to admit it when their teammates are capable of running their own lives- especially underclassman like you and Hinata. It kinda gives us pride when you come to us asking for help or advice. Hinata still lets me play a few sets but you’ve had me on the bench ever since you joined the club. And when you go to Waseda, I won’t even be able to watch the game.”

“When I go?”

“Shit, Tsukishima. Don’t tell me you’ve changed your mind. I’ve already sent in my recommendation letter to the office and called your parents. You know, your parents seemed kinda surprised to hear that you were going so soon."

Tsukishima smiles.

“Thank you, Daichi.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“If it’s any help in getting you laid, Sugawara likes it when his mapo tofu is super spicy.”

"I'll keep that in mind." Daichi chuckles and pats Tsukishima on the back before getting up and walking back into the house. Tsukishima smiles as he reopens in book. He’s in a much better mood.

Mr. Ukai stands at the podium and faces the class with an open book laid in front of him. He waits for the bell to ring before beginning his class. Right on time, the bell rings.

“All right, I assume everyone has finished their poem. Except for Mr. Oikawa, who has an excuse.” Mr. Ukai starts to snicker as he sees a sulking Oikawa who’s hiding behind a pair of sunglasses.

“Lose the shades, Oikawa.”

Oikawa reluctantly removes his sunglasses to reveal a very bruised nose. The class along with Mr. Ukai snickers at the pathetic sight.

“What? Did Tsukishima finally beat your ass?”

“No, it was his teammate. The short one with the bright orange hair.” A classmate replied earning a very hearty laugh from Mr. Ukai.

Oikawa sank further into his crossed arms.

“Alright, now is anyone brave enough to read their poem aloud?”

The classroom goes silent and no one moves. Tsukishima glances around before slowly raising her hand.

“I’ll read mine.”

“Good Lord, here we go.” Mr. Ukai mutters as he anticipates the worst.

Kuroo looks up as Tsukishima makes his way to the front of the class. Tsukishima opens his binder and clears his throat. He glances up briefly at Kuroo before returning his eyes to read his homework.

I hate the way you talk to me

And the way you play with my hair.

I hate the way you drive my car.

I hate it when you stare.

I hate your outrageous bedhead

And the way you read my mind.

I hate you so much it makes me sick.

It even makes me rhyme.

Tsukishima pauses to clear his throat and tries blinking away the forming tears.

I hate it…

I hate the way you’re always right.

I hate it when you lie.

I hate when you make me laugh;

Even worse when you make me cry.

His vision gets blurry as the tears continue to form and sniffs.

I hate it when you’re not around

And the fact that you didn’t call,

But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you;

Not even a little bit;

Not even at all.

He looks directly at Kuroo who looks back morose and thoughtful. Tsukishima looks up to the ceiling trying to blink away the tears but when he realizes it’s not going to work, he tears out his assignment and hands it to Mr. Ukai before walking over to grab his things and leave the classroom. The rest of the classroom sits in silence. The only sounds they hear is Kuroo getting up to leaving the classroom as well.

The rest of the school day was fairly normal for Tsukishima. He tried paying attention but found himself drifting off into space or doodling in the margins of his notebook. As the last school bell rings signalling the end of the school day, Tsukishima grabs his things and walks with the rest of the students as they leave school.

He walks to his car alone and as he opens the passenger car door, he is greeted with the same dinosaur model figure he had been looking at for months. He sets down his backpack and books and picks up the model slowly, inspecting every detail. He runs his fingers along the long neck of the Apatosaurus and admires the detail coloring. He doesn’t notice Kuroo leaning in behind him.

“Nice, huh?”

“Is this for me?”

“Yeah, I thought you could use it. You know, when you start finding dinosaur bones of your own.”

“Do even know what dinosaur this is?”

“It’s that long neck…uh…Brontosaurus.”

Tsukishima laughs.

“It’s an Apatosaurus. They were bigger than Brontosaurus.”

“No kidding. Well I had some extra cash because some asshole paid me to take out this really great guy.”

“Is that so?”

Tsukishima smiles to himself as he looks down to admire the expensive present again.

“Yea, but I screwed it up big time.”

“How so?”

“I, uh…,” Kuroo blushes and massages the back of his neck out of nervousness, “I fell for him.”

“Oh really?”

“It’s not every day you find a guy who’ll discuss to a teacher about the flaws of homoerotica and even go into detail about the inappropriate and unsanitary alternatives to lube.”

Tsukishima hides his face behind his hand from surprise and embarrassment as he remembers the incident.

“Oh, god..”

Tsukishima laughs and Kuroo takes it as a good sign. He leans in and kisses Tsukishima who doesn't pull back. Before the kiss got too heated, Tsukishima breaks it off.

“You can’t just buy me an Apatosaurus every time you screw up.”

“Yeah, I know…but then, there’s always T-Rex and Stegosaurus and maybe one day I’ll be generous a buy you a couple of Velcroraptors.”

Tsukishima snorts and throws his head back in a hearty laughing

“What?”

Tsukishima tries to stop laughing but the moment he looks at Kuroo, he starts laughing again.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s Velociraptors.” Tsukishima manages to reply through his laughing. “Not Velcroraptors.”

Kuroo captures Tsukishima’s lips for another kiss. He carefully removes the dinosaur figure and sets it aside before wrapping his arms around his waist. And just things were about to get good, Tsukishima breaks off the kiss again.

“And don’t think you can just-”

Kuroo kisses him again to shut him up. He smiles as he feels Tsukishima’s hands slide up his torso to wrap around his neck. He swipes his tongue across Tsukishima’s bottom lip and nibbles asking for entrance. Tsukishima can feel Kuroo smirk as his tongue slips into his mouth. He tugs at Kuroo’s hair _gently_ when he feels a hand travel south.

Daichi seemed to be lost in his recent notes as he and Suga walk into the parking lot. He barely notices the light tapping on his shoulder.

“Daichi, look” Suga taps his shoulder a little harder as he tries to get the captain’s attention.

“Not now Suga”

“No, Daichi. I’m serious, look.”

Daichi sighs as he closes his notebook and looks up to his vice-captain/setter/significant other.

“Suga, you know I have a test tomorrow. What could possibly-”

“Tsukishima is making out with the captain of the Nekoma team in the parking lot.” Suga interrupted.

“What.”

Daichi followed Suga’s pointed finger and gawks. There was Tsukishima, good student; never-does-anything-remotely-scandalous Tsukishima full on making out with the Nekoma captain in the parking lot.

Daichi was at a loss for words. He looked back at Suga, mouth hung open and pointed silently asking if what he was seeing was true. Suga nodded and Daichi looked back.

“DAICHI!”

Tsukishima pulls back and looks in the direction of the shout. He didn’t know whether to laugh or be mortified. There was Daichi, one the ground –probably passed out from shock- with Suga frantically fanning the man with his notebook.

"TSUKISHIMA! EXPLAIN YOURSELF!" Suga yells from across the lot as he continues to fan Daichi.

Tsukishima glances at Kuroo and both laugh nervously.

“You think we should take this someplace else?”

“Yes.”

They get into Tsukishima’s car and drive off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for reading and all your support. Please feel free leave kudos and comments ( o v o)b  
> If you have time, please also feel free to check out my other works (so far there are only Shingeki no Kyojin work but I plan on adding some more Haikyuu in the future)
> 
> If you have any ideas or prompts for a fic you'd like to see, you can leave a comment here or message me on my tumblr : http://erinyanko.tumblr.com/


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